Diamond Merchant
BRILLIANT MOORE’S ROYAL ASCOT GEM O’BRIEN: WE ACHIEVED THE IMPOSSIBLE
MERCHANT NAVY pulled off an “impossible task” to give Aidan O’brien a first Group 1 triumph of Royal Ascot 2018 in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes.
The finish was dramatic – Merchant Navy and Ryan Moore shaded the photo by a short head from France’s City Light – and the start was contentious.
Harry Angel, the 5-2 shot, sustained a cut leg in the starting stalls and played no meaningful part.
Merchant Navy had joined O’brien from Australia, where, in receipt of 12lb, he had narrowly gone under to Redkirk Warrior at Flemington in March. The pair contested yesterday’s six-furlong test at level weights.
O’brien admitted: “We thought it was an impossible task.
“We knew that he was meeting the horse 12lb wrong than when he was meeting him in Australia.
“It was a big worry and, reading what everybody was saying, I had come here prepared that he couldn’t win.”
After changing hemispheres, the son of Fastnet Rock had made a winning start for his new stable with a victory in the Group 2 Greenlands Stakes
on The Curragh’s 2,000 Guineas undercard last month.
“When he ran at The Curragh his coat didn’t know whether he was going into the winter or the summer,” added O’brien. “So he had a lot of re-adjusting to do.”
Despite success in the eighth and final Group 1 of the Royal meeting, O’brien – who hopes Merchant Navy will stay for Newmarket’s July Cup before returning Down Under – admitted to a sense of frustration at defeat in the preceding seven. “It’s the most competitive racing in the world,” said the master of Ballydoyle, who still topped the trainers’ standings with four wins.
“They were fit, they weren’t blowing and they were very healthy, but the little edge wasn’t there with some of them.”
Harry Angel’s handler Clive Cox was nursing a more acute frustration after the four-year-old’s disorder in the stalls left him with a wound to his near-hind leg.
“He misbehaved and got his leg up there on the ledge in the stalls,” revealed Cox.
“When the stalls opened, he was standing on three legs, like a dog with his leg up. I just hope he’s in one piece, but the vets have been very positive with the news they’ve been giving me.”
Moore, the fixture’s top jockey with five triumphs, had earlier scored on 4-7 favourite Crystal Ocean in the Hardwicke Stakes.
It was a record 79th Royal Ascot win for Sir Michael Stoute, who had surpassed his late friend and rival Sir Henry Cecil’s total of 75 on Wednesday, and an 11th in the 12-furlong Group 2, setting the four-year-old up for a return to Ascot for the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes on July 28.
Dreamfield went off one of the shortest-priced Wokingham Handicap favourites at 2-1.
The bookies were cheering for every one of his 27 rivals and got their wish – 33-1 shot Bacchus got up in the dying strides to foil the gamble.