Illuminate brightens Hughes’ final Royal Ascot; Simcock
gets first win at Royal meeting
In Friday’s opening race, the Albany S. (Eng-G3), Hughes rode 4-1 favorite
The jockey may owe his change of luck to an impulse buy by his
“I never buy flowers
There had been worries about the fast ground for the Richard Hannon-trained
“As soon as we went to post I realized there was nothing to worry about,”
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Illuminate is bound for the July 10 Cherry Hinton S. (Eng-G2) at Newmarket.
“Hughsie is going to leave a very big hole in the
operation,” Hannon said. “He hasn’t missed a beat and she’s a very good filly.
We always thought she was good and she’s the most straightforward filly you
could wish for.”
Hughes earned his 30th Royal Ascot winner, a sequence started by Sergeyev in the Jersey
S. (Eng-G3) 20 years ago.
“That’s a nice number to get to, no-one would remember 29,” the
reinsman said. “And it’s nice to round off riding at the
meeting with a winner, a good way to go. I think one of the best rides I ever
gave a horse was on Memory in this race five years ago who broke three or four
seconds after the others and lost 10 lengths but got there. The best horse I
rode here was Canford Cliffs, who won three years in a row.”
Hughes’ said his main emotion after Illuminate’s victory
was relief.
“Things weren’t going right but I felt they had to get better,” he
said. “I never stopped believing they would — you mustn’t forget your confidence
— but I came here with no expectations of riding a winner just because it was my
last time here. It was nice to do it, but not the end of things if I didn’t.”
Illuminate, who is campaigned by Denford Stud, will not be Hughes’ mount next season when she
may challenge for the classics.
“You can say every season that there will be a
contender at the top level to look forward to from this yard, so I can’t go down
that regret road,” he stated. “The game has been very good to me and I’m happy
with where I am now, and ready to move on to my second career, and looking
forward to it. Let’s hope I can train 30 here.”
A frustrating Royal Ascot for trainer Kevin Ryan continued
when Ashadihan came out second best to Illuminate in the Albany; it was the third second-place of the week for the North
Yorkshire handler.
“I’m very proud of this filly but it’s hard to finish second three times at
this meeting,” Ryan reflected. “She has a great temperament and got home well —
I think she’ll be better over another furlong.”
U.S.-based Wesley Ward saw his two runners in the race — Back at the Ranch
(Artie Schiller) and Laxfield Road (Quality Road) — finish ninth and 15th,
respectively.
One race later, Newmarket trainer David Simcock enjoyed a first Royal Ascot
success when the lightly-raced Balios (Shamardal) was produced with a well-timed run by
Jamie Spencer to win the King Edward VII S. (Eng-G2) by 1 1/4 lengths.
“Winning here is not a monkey off my back but it is a huge
relief. Obviously, everyone wants to win at Royal Ascot,” Simcock admitted.
“The route we have taken with this horse has suited him,” he continued. “The
(Epsom) Derby (Eng-G1) would have come too early for him; he is probably too
immature. I’m very pleased for the owners, they are very sporting and they like
to travel and this is a horse they can enjoy for the next two or three years.
He’ll be a flagship horse for them.”
The Al Asayl Bloodstock colorbearer is seen as an exciting long-term prospect by Simcock.
“He’s going to be a really nice horse in 12 months’ time,
he’ll probably have a maximum of three more runs this year,” the horseman stated.
“I see him as a 10-12
furlong horse. He’s still very immature and can only improve.
“We have always liked the horse and we have made it very
clear that we like the horse. He was a little inexperienced at Newmarket last
time and I didn’t want to change anything — I said to Jamie to give him a ballsy
ride and it suited him down to the ground. It was a fantastic ride, even if he
had got beat, he did what I had told him to do.”
“This fellow is a tribute to Jenny and David (Simcock) — a lot of other
people would have sent him to Epsom (for the Derby) but they have taken their
time with him,” Spencer noted. “He gets the trip well and he is a very lightly-raced
horse. He only had one run on grass before today so there is plenty of
improvement. He is quite immature still and wants to race the other horses once
he joins them. It took him half a furlong to get going but then he really mowed
down the leader.
“His work a week ago was absolutely outstanding. I thought
that he was one of my best chances of the week as long as he could get through
the preliminaries.
“I have been watching the highlights
every morning with Charlie, Chloe and Ella and they keep saying: “where are you?
How come you are not winning?” so I can’t wait for tomorrow morning’s
highlights!”
Aidan O’Brien, responsible
for third-placed Father Christmas (Bernardini) and early Epsom Derby favorite Ol’
Man River (Montjeu) who finished fourth, spoke about his runners.
“Both of ours ran well,” the trainer said. “(Jockey) Joseph (O’Brien) said his horse
(Father
Christmas) is still a big baby, and that was a great effort coming here from a
maiden. (Ol’ Man River) has not really shown any spark this year, so he’ll
have a break. I still have faith in him and the ability I know
he has. It’s probably trainer error that has put him where he is.”
Stravagante (Rip Van Winkle) was pulled up out of the King Edward VII by
jockey Frankie Dettori. It was reported the Sir Michael Stoute trainee came up
lame in his left foreleg.
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