O’Neill, Lanigan saddle first Royal Ascot winners

The 2015 meet ended up providing a number of first Royal Ascot winners to trainers and jockeys, including conditioners Eoghan O’Neil and David Lanigan (Photo courtesy of Ascot Racecourse via Twitter)

On Saturday, the final day of the 2015 Royal Ascot meeting, two trainers
broke through with their first triumphs at the Royal stand.

A long-term plan by Eoghan O’Neill paid dividends when two-year-old Suits You
(Youmzain) provided the French-based Irishman with his first Royal Ascot success
in the Chesham S. to kick off the races under Cristian Demuro.

A couple hours later, trainer David Lanigan saddled his first Royal Ascot winner
when landing the Wokingham H. with Interception (Raven’s Pass), a victory which radically
altered his view of the meeting.

First up, though, Suits You just got a short head score in the Chesham for
O’Neill, who had been targeting the seven-furlong contest with his charge for
some time.

“He’s very smart and he has been since February,” said
O’Neill, who moved from Newmarket across the Channel five years ago. “It has been the plan to come here for a long time. I
decided we’d head to this if he won first time out, which he did (on May 28 at
Maisons-Laffitte).

Mahsoob’s connections are eyeing the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth after his Wolferton H. victory (Photo courtesy of Ascot Racecourse via Twitter)

In the other two Royal Ascot races on the day, Mahsoob (Dansili) could return
to the Berkshire racecourse for the July 25 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth S.
(Eng-G1) after taking the listed Wolferton H. by a half-length while Oriental
Fox (Lomitas) recorded a seven-length victory in the Queen Alexandra S. in
course record time of 4:45.67.

The four-year-old Mahsoob, ridden by Paul Hanagan for trainer John Gosden, is
now unbeaten in four starts and holds entries as diverse as the John Smith’s
Magnet Cup H., the King George at 12 furlongs and Sandown’s Eclipse S. (Eng-G1)
over 10 furlongs on July 4.

“He’s well engaged,” said Gosden, who has now trained the Wolferton H. winner
in three of the past five years.

No-one was more surprised by Oriental Fox’s Queen Alexandra
victory, the finale of Royal Ascot 2015, than his trainer Mark
Johnston. The seven-year-old, a 4-1 shot ridden by Joe Fanning, had smart
staying form in the past but had been out of action for nearly a year recovering
from a fracture to a hind joint.

“He had been working terrible,” Johnston stated. “We worked
him over a mile and a quarter with a maiden, who beat him out of sight. We
thought maybe we’d gone too fast, so we tried again, with the same result.”

The Queen Alexandra Stakes is the longest in the Flat
calendar at an extended two miles, five furlongs.

“For the stayers, it’s a race
that’s slightly different from the others,” Johnston added. “When your dreams of
winning the Gold Cup (Eng-G1) are over, you come to this. It’s so often dominated by the
jumpers, and indeed the favorite today was a horse that had been jumping
(Wicklow Brave [Beat Hollow], fourth at 5-4).

“We thought the race would be perfect for Oriental Fox if
he was on song, but I have to admit I didn’t think he was. He’d had a long time
off.”

Oriental Fox, owned by Markus Graff, sustained his injury
after the Northumberland Plate at Newcastle late last June.

“He had a couple of
screws put in it and went home to Switzerland to recuperate and I think he had
too much time off,” Johnston explained. “He was carrying a lot of condition and it
has taken us time to get him straight. I’ve never seen him look better, but when
it came to work he was definitely not showing his best.”