NAVY LARK
But injury fears for favourite Harry Angel
AIDAN O’BRIEN’S Merchant Navy edged home in a thrilling finish to the Diamond Jubilee Stakes – but the feature race on the final day of Royal Ascot was ruined when favourite Harry Angel blew the start and suffered a worrying injury.
Much of the speculation before the £600,000 race had concerned whether Harry Angel, rated the best sprinter in the world in 2017, could end his Ascot hoodoo, having failed to win in four races at the track.
The contest for the 5-2 favourite was over as soon as the stalls opened as he was left trailing by 10 lengths. He finished 11th of 12.
Trainer Clive Cox was also left hoping that a puncture wound on his left hind leg was superficial rather than serious.
Cox, who attached no blame to the starting stalls’ team, said: ‘He has a nasty puncture wound on the outside of his fetlock which the vets are flushing.
‘He had his foot on the ledge in the stalls. We know he’s awkward in the stalls and he’s misbehaved and got his foot up there. He was on three legs. When the stalls opened, he was like a dog with his leg up. It’s nobody’s fault, just one of those things.
‘The race is irrelevant now. I just hope he’s in one piece. The vets have been very positive.’
Harry Angel’s jockey Adam Kirby said he was ‘gutted’. The rider added: ‘He’s always been a character in the starting stalls and he threw himself around a bit. It’s a split-second thing.’
Any remote chance that Harry Angel could recover the lost ground evaporated when US hope and ultimately third-placed Bound For Nowhere exited like a bullet.
The Wesley Ward-trained speedster clung on until the final furlong, when challenged by Merchant Navy on one side and French hope City Light on the other.
Initial impressions were that City Light had got up but the photo-finish confirmed that Ryan Moore-ridden Merchant Navy had clung on by a short head with Bound For Nowhere three-quarters of a length further back.
The Tin Man, James Fanshawetrained 2017 race winner, was the first British runner home in fourth.
The win, the fourth of the week for O’Brien but his first at group one level, may have been honed at the trainer’s Tipperary base but it had been forged in Australia. The colt was shipped over to O’Brien in the Spring and had won at the Curragh last month.
But the fact that he was bred to southern hemisphere time meant he was in effect a three-year-old taking on older rivals on level terms.
Merchant Navy overturned form with Aussie compatriot Redkirk Warrior, who had beaten him on his last run Down Under but could finish only 10th. O’Brien said: ‘I’d
come here prepared for the fact he could not win because he was so wrong at the weights. We thought it was impossible for him.’
Merchant Navy is due to start life as a stallion in September in Australia but may now stay in Europe to take in the July Cup at Newmarket.
Crystal Ocean is 2-1 favourite for the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes next month after he gave trainer Michael Stoute an 11th win in the Hardwicke Stakes.
Bookies were spared a big pay-out when John Gosden’s Dreamfield, 2-1 favourite for the furiously competitive Wokingham handicap, was beaten by a neck by 33-1 shot Bacchus.