Patience proved a virtue in Wednesday’s Prince Of Wales’s Stakes as Ombudsman graduated in style to Group One level with a resounding success for Godolphin at Royal Ascot.
The most inexperienced runner in the field showed a spectacular turn of finishing speed in the final furlong of a furiously run contest to score at 7-1 under jockey William Buick.
Just a year after making a belated debut, Ombudsman delivered on a big reputation by scoring in the highest class on just his sixth start.
Unbeaten in four races last year, the horse trained by John and Thady Gosden met with defeat for the first time on his first start of this campaign only to bounce back with aplomb when it counted.
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Buick’s tactic of sitting off a frantic early pace took Ombudsman easily into the mix outside the furlong pole, only to have to check the colt twice to get a run. By then, the veteran Anmaat had gone for home. But he proved powerless to resist the winner’s late thrust and came up two lengths short.
From the start the 13-8 favourite Los Angeles chased his pacemaker Continuous and struck for home in the straight only for quick early fractions to eventually take their toll as Ryan Moore’s mount faded to fifth.
Los Angeles’ trainer Aidan O’Brien had earlier won a first Queen Mary with True Love but it was old rival John Gosden who underlined how big a threat he will be this week in the race to be crowned top trainer.
Gosden landed the ‘gong’ twice on his own (2012 and 2020) and with his son Thady in 2021.
The Englishman reached a landmark 70 Royal Ascot winners in all with Ombudsman’s success which followed up an earlier win with Crimson Advocate in the Duke Of Cambridge. He also saddled a double on Tuesday highlighted by the outstanding Field Of Gold.
“The plan was to just relax off the pace, which was strong and set up for Los Angeles, who is a real dour, long-striding staying horse, but to that extent we knew we’d be comfortable where we were. It was just the question of when you get in the straight, would you get the luck?” Gosden said.
The Newmarket trainer played the straightest of straight bats to talk of a future clash between Ombudsman and Field Of Gold. But if the latter is likely to stay at a mile next time out, the Eclipse looks firmly on the agenda for Gosden’s latest Group One star.
“He is a mile-and-a-quarter horse. William said he has a lot of speed. He has a wonderful turn of foot and has done nothing but grow in stature. I think we had him spot on. He is a horse who, because he hasn’t over-raced this year, you could be looking at the Eclipse with,” he said.
O’Brien was left scratching his head after Los Angeles’ performance and said: “We will take him back and see how he is. You wouldn’t take anything away from the others, but you wouldn’t think that wasn’t his true running.
“The King George might come a bit quick after a run like that, Jan Brueghel might come into that job.”
True Love more than lived up to expectations with a Queen Mary success that once again underlined the power of Ballydoyle’s two-year-old team.
“She’s a big, mature, strong filly; walking around the ring, she was like a four-year-old, and that’s not making little of anything else. She is just so big, mature and scopey. She is something to look forward to,” O’Brien said.
Even by Gosden’s stellar standards, it’s proving a Royal Ascot to remember, although probably not as memorable as for Paddy Twomey.
Based in Tipperary, but originally from Innishannon in Co Cork, the rapidly progressive trainer enjoyed a first success at the meeting when Carmers maintained his unbeaten record in the Queen’s Vase.
Having made his debut at Ballinrobe last month, and taken in a Navan Listed race en route, a potential St Leger could await Carmers in the autumn. Billy Lee, successful on Ascending on Tuesday, did the steering and kicked early in the straight.
“He is obviously going to have an entry in the St Leger; we will see. He has ran three times, won three times, and hopefully he continues doing that,” Twomey said. “This is my first Royal Ascot winner. We did have winners at Cheltenham and Aintree last season.”
Carmers was given 12-1 quotes for the world’s oldest Classic at Doncaster.
“I wanted to stretch them, so I was always going to try to make it a stamina test. You can see him there pricking his ears going to the line, just doing enough. Staying was always going to be a forte of his. He is so laid back, he wouldn’t pass out the dog at home!” Lee joked.
The Twomey-Lee combination fancied their chances with Rogue Legend in the Windsor Castle but the grey had to settle for dead-heating in third behind Havana Hurricane.
A Royal Ascot winner in 2023, it looked like Snellen was set to score again at the meeting when hitting the front in the Kensington Palace. However, Gavin Cromwell’s filly couldn’t repel the late challenge of Miss Information and Oisín Murphy.
Another Australian-based rider was successful this week as New Zealander James McDonald guided Crimson Advocate to win with another late thrust. It was a fifth Royal Ascot victory for McDonald, whose colleague Mark Zahra landed Tuesday’s Queen Anne on Docklands.
