ROYAL ASCOT REPORT AND PREVIEW:JOHNNY MURTAGH bounced back from picking up seven days' worth of suspensions on Tuesday to put himself back on top of the Royal Ascot's jockeys' table with a double yesterday that still has the Irishman fancying his chances of retaining his leading rider title at the festival.
Murtagh scored a Group Two success with the 10 to 1 shot Spacious in the Windsor Forest Stakes, and picked up an impressive Royal Hunt Cup victory when the favourite, Forgotten Voice, retained his unbeaten record in style.
That put Murtagh level on three winners for the week with Richard Hughes but ahead of his compatriot on placed efforts. Hughes is still favourite to come out on top, as his rival is banned for the final two days this week. But even with just today available to him Murtagh isn’t giving up.
“Three days is enough,” said the man who has now ridden 31 Royal Ascot winners in his career. “I’m aiming for six winners. If I can get that, then they can come and beat me!”
Such confidence shone through his ride on Spacious as he made all the running on James Fanshawe’s filly to hold off the Cheveley Park Stud first-string Heaven Sent. The Jim Bolger-trained favourite, Lush Lashes, faded badly in the closing stages and finished out of the money.
“I didn’t know her when I rode her at Epsom but I thought this race would be ideal. I wanted to let her use that beautiful stride,” Murtagh said afterwards.
Forgotten Voice looked every inch a Group horse in a handicap as he scraped paint up the stands rail throughout to beat Huzzah and Mia’s Boy and bring off a long-range plan by his trainer Jeremy Noseda.
“He had leg problems last year and I was on a plane to Keeneland last September when I hatched a plan to come here,” said the Newmarket trainer. “It isn’t often a plan comes to fruition but I would say that is the last time you will see him in a handicap.”
Murtagh agreed, and added: “The way he went down to the start I was very confident. He is still a big playboy and there’s lots of improvement in him.”
The Irish jockey will be in Group One action aboard Yeats today, but he missed out on yesterday’s feature, the Prince of Wales’ Stakes, which saw Olivier Peslier score on board the French challenger Vision d’Etat.
Last year’s Prix du Jockey Club winner came from last to first in the straight to edge out the favourite, Tartan Bearer, with another French hope, Never On Sunday, in third.
“Le premier victoire!” was the response of Vision d’Etat’s trainer Eric Libaud when asked to compare yesterday’s success with anything else in his career.
The winner is now a 10 to 1 shot for the Arc, and Peslier reported: “He is a typical French horse. If he is a length or two behind, it is not a problem because he will always finish well.”
Just 24 hours after Wes Ward became the first American trainer to have a Royal Ascot winner, he produced Jealous Again to run out an even more impressive winner in the Queen Mary Stakes, making all under Johnny Velazquez to crush the home team.
“In America we train for speed and the reason I came over here was I thought the others in the race here are trained to go on for next year,” said Ward.
Cork-born jockey Tadhg O’Shea rode his first Royal Ascot winner on board the Sheikh Hamdan second-string Ouqba in the Jersey Stakes. Ouqba was rejected by retained rider Richard Hills in favour of favourite Infiraad.
A royal winner looked on in the concluding Sandringham Handicap as Golden Stream led a furlong out, but she had no answer to a final thrust by the favourite Cantbuymelove.
