Good end to a tough week with 3 more winners

The Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes provided the highlight on the final day of Royal Ascot on Saturday with two top-class sprinters going toe to toe inside the final furlong. Lazzat gained his second win at the highest level getting the better of Japanese challenger Satono Reve by half a length with three lengths back to the third. A recent purchase for Wathan Racing, the four year old gelding won the Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville last summer and had warmed up for this with a wide margin win in Listed company at Chantilly last month. Given a positive ride by James Doyle, he stayed on strongly in the closing stages. The first two home clocked top speeds of 41.18 and 41.79mph respectively inside the fourth furlong and the pair covered the final furlong in 11.90 and 11.85 seconds, according to Race Iq. It was a tremendous spectacle and what the Royal meeting is all about. There were some very talented sprinters left trailing in the pair's wake. With the July Cup expected to come too soon, Lazzat is likely to bid to defend his crown in the Prix Maurice de Gheest (10th August) before a tilt at the Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup the following month. 

Lazzat (9/2) was providing France with their first win in the six furlongs event and he was one of three winners on the final afternoon for followers of the Ahead On The Flat Royal Ascot Update. The afternoon got off to a good start with Humidity (4/1) maintaining his unbeaten record in the Listed Chesham Stakes. Similar to Lazzat, the Ulysses colt was acquired by Wathnan Racing shortly after his debut win at Newbury and he looked a juvenile of considerable potential scoring here by a length. Once again, Andrew Balding's charge make virtually all the running before staying on well to win with something in hand and emulating his full brother Holloway Boy who landed this in 2022. Group races will be next and he should have no trouble staying a mile. 

The third and final winner on Saturday was saved for the finale, with Sober (4/5) outclassing his eight rivals in the Queen Alexandra Stakes. Formerly trained by Andre Fabre, the six year old was bought for €115,000 in October last year and won on his hurdles debut at Killarney last month - stablemate Absurde won the same race two years earlier. Partnered by Ryan Moore, the Group 2 winning son of Camelot was always going well and left his opponents behind in the homestraight. Short price favourites aren't every punters cup of tea, but this was buying money. 

The selections in the Wokingham Handicap - one of my favourite races of the week - were poor and there is no getting away from that. I was particularly disappointed with the well supported Jarraaf who was seemingly well positioned at halfway. Perhaps he needs a slower surface. Having said that, I wouldn't have selected the winner if I had spent another fortnight studying the race. The narrow defeat of Seraph Gabriel in the Golden Gates Handicap was frustrating with Ralph Beckett's lightly raced runner being headed on the line and denied by a nose.

All in all, it has been a satisfactory week with 9 winners - I would have taken that on Tuesday morning. The winners included Gstaad (advised @ 9/2), Field of Gold (advised @ 5/6), Ombudsman (7/1), Merchant (advised @ 13/2), Trawlerman (advised @ 7/2), Amiloc (11/8), Humidity (4/1), Lazzat (9/2) and Sober (4/5). As discussed, there were plenty of disappointments over the five days, not least in the Royal Hunt Cup and Wokingham Handicap. There were some near misses and wrong choices - including Venetian Sun in the Albany Stakes - and sometimes going against the obvious such as My Cloud (Hunt Cup) and Charles Darwin (Norfolk Stakes). You never stop learning in this game. Thank you very much to those clients who bought the Update, your continued support is greatly appreciated. I hope you found it value for money and backed a few winners - it is a case of presenting the information to clients and making the most of it rather than following it blindly. 

It terms of crowds during the week, the attendances were 45,551 (Tuesday), 41,571 (Wednesday), 65,718 (Thursday), 62,628 (Friday) and 71,073 (Saturday). Its now time to start work on One Jump Ahead.....