Poetic Flare is away and clear in the St James's Palace
Poetic Flare - one of the undoubted highlights of the week

Royal Ascot review: Donn McClean on the Irish challenge


Our man Donn McClean reflects on the highs and lows for the Irish raiding party at Royal Ascot last week - and where now for the stars?

There were a few firsts for the Irish at Royal Ascot this year. A first Royal Ascot winner for Johnny Murtagh as a trainer, a first Royal Ascot winner for Ben Coen as a rider, a first Royal Ascot winner for Gary Carroll as a rider. A first Royal Ascot winner for trainer Gavin Cromwell - to add to his Champion Hurdle and his Stayers’ Hurdle and his Welsh Grand National and his Prix de Royallieu - with his first Royal Ascot runner.

Quick Suzy had looked like a potential Queen Mary filly for a little while. The well-named Profitable filly looked all speed when she won her maiden over six furlongs at The Curragh in early May and again when she finished second in a Group 3 race also over six furlongs at Naas in mid-May. It looked then as if Ascot’s stiff five furlongs could be ideal.

And so it proved. Fast away from stall 22 – closest to the stands rail – in Wednesday’s curtain-raiser, Gavin Cromwell’s filly was quickly into her racing rhythm for Gary Carroll, and she was able to easily lie up with the fast fractions that the American filly Twilight Gleaming set. She picked up well at the two-furlong pole when her rider asked her to, she hit the front just inside the furlong marker, and she kept on strongly all the way to the line to win by over a length.

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Quick Suzy was bought by the American syndicate Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners after she won her maiden at The Curragh in the Dunphys’ colours, with the intention of going to Royal Ascot and then going to America. Perhaps her owners will have a re-think now, however, given how impressive she was in winning the Queen Mary, because there are options for her in Europe. A Group 2 winner now, her next goal is obviously a Group 1 win.

The Phoenix Stakes at The Curragh in August against the colts is one option, as is the Nunthorpe Stakes at York also in August against her elders, in which she would receive the two-year-olds’ allowance and the fillies’ allowance, and the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket in September. Her rider suggested the Cheveley Park Stakes, and that could make a lot of sense, against her own age group, against her own sex, and over Newmarket’s easy six furlongs, which could be ideal.

Johnny Murtagh was leading rider at Royal Ascot five times, and he is now also a Royal Ascot-winning trainer, since Create Belief landed the Sandringham Handicap on Friday. Drawn in stall 16, the Awtaad filly was given an astute ride by her young rider Ben Coen, Royal Ascot debutant, who had her prominent from early and who allowed her wend her way over to the stands side through the early stages of the race.

She travelled well into the lead at the two-furlong pole, and she showed an impressive turn of foot to clear away from her rivals through the final furlong.

Create Relief is away and clear in the Sandringham
Create Relief is away and clear in the Sandringham

Third in a maiden at Gowan Park on her only run last year, Create Belief has strengthened and progressed this season, winning three of her four races, her only defeat coming in the Listed Salsabil Stakes over 10 furlongs at Naas in April on good ground. All her other runs have been on soft or heavy ground over a mile.

Now owned by the RacehorseClub, she holds an entry in the Group 2 Kilboy Estate Stakes at The Curragh on Irish Oaks weekend, a race that has been won by a three-year-old in three of the last four years, and she will be of interest if she takes her chance in that. She is deserving of a shot at a Group race now.

It was a fine week for Murtagh and Coen. Create Belief was their only winner, but they had other horses who ran really well in defeat: Measure Of Magic finished third in the Commonwealth Cup, Mirann finished fourth in the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes, Champers Elysees got her season back on track with a fine run to finish fourth in the Duke of Cambridge Stakes under a 5lb penalty. The Murtagh horses could be worth monitoring now as we move more deeply into the summer.

Jim Bolger and Kevin Manning also had a fine week. One runner, one winner.

Poetic Flare routs his Ascot rivals
Poetic Flare routs his Ascot rivals

Poetic Flare has now run five times this season, and he has won three times: the 2000 Guineas Trial, the 2000 Guineas and now the St James’s Palace Stakes. His two defeats, in the French Guineas and in the Irish Guineas, when he was beaten a short head by his stable companion Mac Swiney, were both on soft ground.

He is obviously as tough as his owner/trainer/breeder says he is. He bounces off this fast ground, and it appears that he thrives on his racing. He has had breaks of just 21 days, 15 days, six days and 24 days respectively this season, and it appears that he continues to progress. In coming over four lengths clear of Lucky Vega on Tuesday, with Battleground and Maximal and Chindit and Highland Avenue stretched out behind him, he probably put up the best performance of his career to date.

It is eight years since Jim Bolger and Kevin Manning teamed up to land the St James’s Palace Stakes with Poetic Flare’s sire Dawn Approach. Dawn Approach went on to Goodwood on his next run and finished second to Toronado in the Sussex Stakes. It looks like that race is on Poetic Flare’s radar now, and there is every chance that he will go one better than his sire.

Love holds off Audarya at Ascot
Love holds off Audarya at Ascot

It was good to see Love back on the racecourse. Aidan O’Brien’s filly had missed a couple of engagements already this season because of unsuitably soft ground, but the rains didn’t arrive at Ascot until Thursday night, which was good news for Love, because the good to firm ground for Wednesday’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes was ideal for her.

Ryan Moore bounced her out of the gate, and she made just about all the running. She had to dig deep, she came under a ride early and she was challenged by James Fanshawe’s filly Audarya from the two-furlong marker, but she was tough and she was strong all the way to the line, getting home by three parts of a length in the end.

It is probable that the Galileo filly will come on for this run, her first run since she won the Yorkshire Oaks last August. Winner of the Guineas and the Oaks too last year, she has myriad options now, the Eclipse, the King George, the Juddmonte International, the Irish Champion Stakes, the Arc.

She had the pace to win the Guineas last year, and she proved here that she is very good over 10 furlongs, but she stays really well, she had the stamina to win the Oaks and the Yorkshire Oaks last year and, a full-sister to Munster Oaks winner Flattering, it may be that a mile and a half is her optimum trip.

WATCH: On board with Oisin Murphy's Royal Ascot winner Berkshire Shadow

O’Brien and Moore doubled their 2021 Royal Ascot tally when Point Lonsdale landed the Chesham Stakes on Saturday. The ground had turned by then, and the Australia colt had to be strong, just getting up close home to get the better of The Queen’s colt Reach For The Moon, with the pair of them finishing nicely clear of Great Max in third.

This was just Point Lonsdale’s second run, and it was a nice step forward from his racecourse debut, when he ran out an impressive winner of a seven-furlong maiden at The Curragh in early June. A full-brother to Broome, the bookmakers cut his odds for next year’s 2000 Guineas to 12/1 and 14/1, clear favourite.

Some 70 minutes after his brother’s victory, Broome himself went close in the Hardwicke Stakes, going down by a length and a half to David Menuisier’s filly Wonderful Tonight, while stable companions Lope Y Fernandez, Wordsworth, Roman Empire, Mother Earth and Sir Lamorak all ran well in defeat.

Joseph O’Brien went close too with Patrick Sarsfield, Visualisation and Messidor, with Liffey River finishing off his race strongly to get to within a half a length of Marcus Tregoning’s horse Perotto in the Britannia Handicap on Thursday.

The Tony Mullins-trained Princess Zoe ran a massive race to finish second to Subjectivist in the Gold Cup on Thursday on ground that was surely faster than ideal for her, and, if the rains had arrived 24 hours earlier than they did, the gap between her and the winner would surely have been narrower than the five lengths by which she was beaten.


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