Racing Royal Ascot report: Ascot may be a symbol of well-heeled gentility but Nayef's Prince Of Wales's Stakes success yesterday might just have sparked off a good old fashioned brotherly spat.
With either the World Cup holder Moon Ballad or the former winner Grandera in line to notch up Group One number 99 for his Godolphin outfit, Sheikh Mohammed's confidence going into the race must have been high.
Indeed, after delivering a royal pep-talk to the Godolphin personnel on Monday night, and Dubai Destination's Queen Anne success on Tuesday, the scene looked set. But then his older brother Hamdan went and threw a spanner in the works. That spanner even had a name, going by the handle of Ekraar. He, too, carried the dark blue Hamdan colours but was in the race strictly to cut out a suitable pace for Nayef. He couldn't do that, but he did something much more valuable.
After missing the break, Ekraar was rushed up by Willie Supple to get on the quarters of Moon Ballad and then stayed there. In fairness Ekraar couldn't have gone much faster but his presence alone meant Moon Ballad was always going a stride too quickly.
Sure enough when Ekraar faded before the straight, Nayef was right on the spot to keep the Godolphin favourite harried. By the two-furlong pole Moon Ballad, without a crucial breather, had had enough.
"He was too fresh, very fresh. Three furlongs out I knew I was in trouble," Dettori reported dolefully.
Grandera was near enough to mount a challenge if he wanted to but that quirky horse was not on a "go" day and instead it was Nayef who powered two and a half lengths clear of the 50 to 1 outsider Rakti.
Over a distance behind in last place was an exhausted Ekraar but since the horse in front of him was Moon Ballad there was understandable elation in the darker blue camp.
"Willie Supple did a marvellous job. It looked hopeless after the start but Willie did superbly to get him up there," admitted Nayef's trainer Marcus Tregonning.
Supple got a slap on the wrist from the stewards afterwards, receiving a one-day ban for crossing too soon after the start. It's a fair bet that the Godolphin team wanted to slap more than his wrist.
Ultimately, however, Nayef, a beautifully bred half-brother to Nashwan and Unfuwain, ended up a conclusive winner and now looks likely to try and go one better than his second to Golan in last year's King George.
The top US rider Gary Stevens rode his fourth Royal Ascot winner on Membership who delivered a 20 to 1 blow to punters in the Jersey Stakes.
"I got a great trip. Clive (Brittain) told me to wait because he's got a good 75-yard punch to him. We actually ran into traffic which helped him because he was very eager," said Stevens.
Typically Brittain was far from surprised, especially since he had Stevens on his side.
"I clapped my hands when he was available. When these American jockeys come over here they are all brain!" exclaimed the veteran trainer.
Johnny Murtagh, injured on Tuesday, didn't ride yesterday and it cost him the Royal Hunt Cup-winning ride on Macadamia. The Co Cork-born rider Dane O'Neill successfully stepped into the breach to give trainer James Fanshawe a first Royal Ascot success.
The nearest to an Irish winner yesterday was Tycoon's second placing to the hot favourite Pearl Of Love in the Chesham Stakes.
Aidan O'Brien's colt ran on well from the rear but had no answer to the Mark Johnston trained colt who was completing a double for the trainer after Attraction's Queen Mary success.
"We're very relieved because Attraction stumbled and fell five days ago and cut her knees. It was too risky to use cortisone cream so we had a couple of days of worrying. But she has always been that bit special," Johnston said.
Miss Childrey did best of the Irish in fifth.
Sinndar's half-brother Sindapour provided the champion National Hunt trainer Martin Pipe with a fifth success in the Ascot Stakes, holding off the Nicky Henderson-trained Landing Light.
