Queen’s Trust to strike another blow for fillies
Stoute will have her primed for feature Ward sets sights on Queen Mary crown
Sir Michael Stoute needs just one winner to move ahead of Sir Henry Cecil and become the most successful Royal Ascot trainer of all time. If Taamol or Smart Call have not provided his 76th Royal winner earlier in the afternoon, the focus will switch to Ulysses in today’s feature, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes (4.20).
Ulysses was well fancied in last year’s Derby, but that was all a bit too much, too soon. Afterwards he received a confidence-booster in the Gordon Stakes and, after a few steps forward and a couple back, he wound up beaten by 6¼ lengths in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, by Highland Reel.
His four-year-old season was always going to be better in Stoute’s patient hands, and he duly showed great tenacity at Sandown in April. But he represents an average vintage, and there is no particular reason in my eyes why he should turn it round with the well-travelled, ever-reliable Highland Reel, even though the drop back in trip might not play to the strengths of Aidan O’brien’s horse.
Jack Hobbs has form over 10 furlongs and, though he has won on fast ground, seems best with a bit of cut and, like Highland Reel, best over a bit further.
With small question marks over the main protagonists, Stoute can still win the race – but with his nominal second string Queen’s Trust. The fillies were better than the colts last year, and she was mixing it with the likes of Minding, Found, Seventh Heaven and the best American filly on turf, Lady Eli.
Her Breeders’ Cup win came on fast ground over this trip, where she needed every yard on such a sharp track as Santa Anita. Ascot should be ideal, and on her Nassau form alone she should go very close.
She looked like a winner for a long way on her reappearance at York, but just tired towards the finish, and one cannot help thinking that getting her ready for the Middleton Stakes was not Stoute’s prime objective.
But it will have put Queen’s Trust spot on for this race, in which fillies have a good record, with The Fugue, Ouija Board and Bosra Sham among recent winners.
Last year the Queen Mary (3.05) provided one of the moments of the week, when Lady Aurelia engaged her booster rockets, and with three wins in the race, Wesley Ward does not look like a well that is about to run dry.
The American trainer has made no secret of how much he likes Happy Like A Fool, who blitzed a field of 12 at Keeneland in April to win by four lengths.
Heartache looks the pick of the home team on her Bath debut, while Richard Fahey thinks plenty of Maybride.
Some of the better-known fillies at three in the Duke of Cambridge (3.40) have not performed to the same level this season, but Laugh Aloud, lightly raced last year, looked like a filly going somewhere fast at Epsom last time.
The Royal Hunt Cup (5.00) looks the usual nightmare for punters, but the rewards for picking the winner are usually high. The three I like best are Luca Cumani’s pair El Vip and Banksea, plus the William Haggas-trained Fastnet Tempest. Preference is just for El Vip.
Josephine Gordon will attempt to become only the second female to ride a winner at the meeting, 30 years after Gay Kelleway scored on Sprowston Boy in the 1987 Queen Alexandra.
Gordon has two decent chances today, with Dream Castle in the Jersey (2.30) and Gymnaste in the Sandringham (5.35).