GOLDIKOVA : GRADE 1 WIN NUMBER NINE IN QUEEN ANNE

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Goldikova winning the 2010 Queen Anne Stakes (Gr1)
(Photo and Footage : Euro Sport)

QUEEN ANNE STAKES (Gr1)
Royal Ascot, 15 June 2010

Goldikova made it Grade 1 win number nine today when securing victory in the GBP250,000 Queen Anne Stakes (G1) over a mile on the opening day of Royal Ascot 2010.

After two years in the limelight, it is hard to believe that Goldikova could have been in any rival’s shadow. But in Zarkava, she had a formidable foe during her three-year-old campaign. Following two defeats by Zarkava in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (G1) and the Prix de Diane (G1), Goldikova was to emerge as a force in her own right with the two going their separate ways thereafter. Wins in the Prix Rothschild (G1) at Deauville and Prix du Moulin de Longchamp (G1) presaged a first Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) triumph that year and at four she annexed the Rothschild and BC Mile again and added the Falmouth Stakes (G1) and the Prix Jacques le Marois (G1) to her tally for good measure. Going an extended nine furlongs in the Prix d’Ispahan (G1) at Longchamp last time on 23 May, Goldikova showed the same magic and achieved the same result when warding off Byword as the pair pulled a country mile clear of the remainder. 

Always traveling with gusto behind the positively ridden Calming Influence and Rip Van Winkle throughout the early stages of the 2010 Queen Anne Stakes today, the bay quickly had the measure of the latter as she glided to the fore at the quarter pole.

It looked as if she would turn the contest into a cakewalk with Paco Boy and Richard Hughes still hemmed in at the rear, but that impression was short-lived when her chief rival was eventually freed with a furlong to race and her margin was being eroded late as Paco Boy found wings wide of the rail.

Despite the runner-up’s huge chasing effort, Goldikova was able to stick her head out against the fence and hold her lead without Olivier Peslier being overly hard on her.

“I felt she was at her best today and she showed it,” trainer Freddy Head added. “We had a perfect run. Now we are going to go to Deauville and run in the Prix Rothschild (G1) and Prix Jacques le Marois (G1) on 1 August and 15 August.”

This win leaves Goldikova one short of the record of 10 victories at the highest level by Miesque, whom Freddie Head partnered, and while comparisons are inevitable, the trainer of the new French sensation was not showing any favoritism.

“It is unfair to compare the two, as they are quite different,” he added. “Miesque was a brilliant two-year-old and three-year-old, whereas Goldikova took a bit more time in coming, but I think she is tougher and stays better than Miesque, and is easier to ride.”

Trainer Richard Hannon was far from dejected after the effort of Paco Boy. “He lost absolutely nothing in defeat - he has that one kick and one burst of speed and has to be ridden like that,” said Hannon. “Richard (Hughes) has given him a super ride, and Goldikova is probably the best racemare we’ve ever seen. It was probably the best race of the meeting, and he’s been beaten a head, so we’re very proud of him. Richard said he thought he had her, but she kept finding a little bit, and that will be proven in the next race when we take her on again.”

RACE RESULT

#	Horse	Jockey	Trainer
1	GOLDIKOVA	Olivier Peslier	Freddy Head
2	PACO BOY	Richard Hughs	Richard Hannon
3	DREAM EATER	Jimmy Fortune	Andrew Balding
4	ZACINTO	Ryan Moore	Sir Michael Stoute
5	DALGHAR	Christophe Lemaire	Alain Royer-Dupre
6	RIP VAN WINKLE	Johnny Murtagh	Aidan O’Brien
7	OUQBA	Richard Hills	Barry Hills
8	CAT JUNIOR	Frankie Dettori	Brian Meehan
9	CALMING INFLUENCE	Ahmed Ajtebi	Mahmood Al Zarooni

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

ROYAL ASCOT 2010

The Royal Procession at Royal Ascot
(Photo : The Mirror) 

ROYAL ASCOT
15 JUNE 2010 - 19 JUNE 2010

Racing’s greatest festival is Royal Ascot. The Melbourne Cup may stop a nation for a day, but the Royal Meeting stops the world for a week. That’s the truth about this phenomenal celebration of pomp, ceremony and the classiest exhibition of Thoroughbred endeavour, anywhere.

Fans of our sport are indebted to Queen Anne who transformed the naked heathland at Windsor Castle into the arena for England’s most famous sporting tradition in 1711. Since then more money, more pride, more pedigree and more champagne has been splurged on the outcome of the events of these four days than on any other sporting action anywhere.

It takes a special kind of animal to make the “cut” for Royal Ascot, let alone win there, and many of those that have distinguished themselves have long since graduated into racing and breeding’s Hall of Fame. The breed-shapers, from Hyperion to Ribot, Sadler’s Wells to Danehill, they all passed Ascot’s way, and who knows what this year’s events, commencing today, might hold?

THE FIRST DAY’S SPORT

Highlights of the first day always include the mid-summer “European Guineas”, the St James’s Palace Stakes (Gr1), which brings together the English Guineas winner, Makfi, the hero of the Irish version, Canford Cliffs, and the French horse Siyouni. Then there is the internationally contested (especially by a flotilla of Aussies), King’s Stand Stakes (Gr1) over five furlongs, which brings together some of the swiftest horses in the world, (JJ The Jet Plane excluded this year,) Borderlescott, Equiano and Kingsgate Native for the home contingent, while the David Hayes-trained Nicconi and Hussonet’s Grade One winning son, Gold Trail do duty for Australia. 

Somehow, the respective 2010 Guineas winners in England, Ireland and France do not possess the same allure as you might expect of these races, so the St James’s Palace has an especially open look to it for this renewal. You can’t say that though, for the Kings Stand where the Europeans field the usual suspects (some of them looking decidedly long in the tooth these days), but the Australians have once again mounted a serious offensive. Their record in this race over the past couple of years suggests that this could be Australia’s day, which will help our friends from down under to get over the pasting they took at the hands of Germany on Sunday evening in Durban.

The Queen Anne Stakes (Gr1) traditionally brings together the best older milers, and in some respects, it could be dubbed the world championship of milers, so good have its outcomes been in the past. At least this one has lived up to its billing, as it matches last year’s three year old champion miler, Rip Van Winkle, the explosively in-form Paco Boy and the eight time Grade One winning filly, Goldikova. If you miss the other two, make sure you’re in front of your telly when this one comes up.

LE COUP D’OR : 
NO YEATS THIS YEAR, BUT THERE’S STILL ANGUS GOLD OUT THERE

The most famous race, and the headliner at this celebrated meeting, is the Gold Cup, a marathon contest over 2,5miles. For the past four seasons, Summerhill resident sire, Solskjaer’s half-brother, Yeats has dominated the event, and has the distinction of being the only horse in the 200 year history of the race to have won it on four consecutive occasions. He won’t be there for the race this year, and it looks like a sub-par gathering of stayers. Nonetheless, we have gold in a different form in the shape of Sheikh Hamdan’s worldwide racing manager, Angus Gold.

One of our favourite parables flowing from Ascot is now two years old, when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II invited Angus to join the Royal Parade. We all know the Queen’s golden coach, and anyone who’s watched Tellytrack in recent years, will know what the Royal procession looks like. Having passed the grandstand the coach proceeds up the shute to the paddock. Once there, the Royal party alights, and proceeds to the Royal Box. On this occasion, as the party departed the paddock, one Aussie wag at the rail enquired: “Hey mate, who’s that bird with Angus Gold?” He obviously wasn’t a Royalist.

TIMEFORM GLOBAL TOP 30 RACEHORSES : MAY 2010

Rip Van Winkle - Timeform 134
(Photo : Guardian/Timeform)

TIMEFORM GLOBAL RANKINGS

#	Horse	Trainer	Country	Rank
1	RIP VAN WINKLE	Aidan O’Brien	Ireland	134
2	FAME AND GLORY	Aidan O’Brien	Ireland	133
2	GOLDIKOVA	Freddy Head	France	133
2	QUALITY ROAD	Todd Pletcher	USA	133
5	ZENYATTA	John Sherriffs	USA	131
6	GIO PONTI	Christophe Clement	USA	130
6	RACHEL ALEXANDRA	Steve Asmussen	USA	130
6	SACRED KINGDOM	Ricky Yiu	Hong Kong	130
9	PACO BOY	Richard Hannon	Great Britain	129
10	ALL SILENT	Grahame Begg	Australia	127
11	GETAWAY	Jens Hirschberger	Germany	127
11	MAKFI	Mikel Delzangles	France	127
11	OKEN BRUCE LEE	Hidetaka Otonashi	Japan	127
11	PRESVIS	Luca Cumani	Great Britain	127
11	TWICE OVER	Henry Cecil	Great Britain	127
11	VISION D’ETAT	Eric Libaud	France	127
11	WHOBEGOTYOU	Mark Kavanagh	Australia	127
18	ALLYBAR	Mahmood Al Zarooni	United Arab Emirates	126
18	ASK	Sir Michael Stoute	Great Britain	126
18	DREAM JOURNEY	Yasutoshi Ikee	Japan	126
18	FAMOUS NAME	Dermot Weld	Ireland	126
18	HEART OF DREAMS	Mick Price	Australia	126
18	KINSALE KING	Carl O’Callaghan	USA	126
18	MAWATHEEQ	Marcus Tregoning	Great Britain	126
18	MIC MAC	Greg Eurell	Australia	126
18	PREDATORY PRICER	Paul Murray	Australia	126
18	RACING TO WIN	John O’Shea	Australia	126
18	RANGIRANGDOO	Chris Waller	Australia	126
18	STARSPANGLEDBANNER	Aidan O’Brien	Ireland	126

Correct as at 5 May 2010

TIMEFORM’S TOP RATED EUROPEAN OLDER HORSES

Yeats
(Photo : Summerhill Stud)

Please click photo to enlarge… 

TIMEFORM OLDER HORSES
Up to and including Sunday 30 August 2009 

HORSE	SIRE	RATING
GOLDIKOVA (IRE)	Anabaa	132
CONDUIT (Ire)	Dalakhani	130
PACO BOY (Ire)	Desert Style	129
SEPTIMUS (Ire)	Sadler’s Wells	129
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE (Ire)	Galileo	129
VISION D’ETAT (Fr)	Chichicastenango	128
YEATS (Ire)	Sadler’s Wells	128
FLEETING SPIRIT (Ire)	Invincible Spirit	127
PRESVIS (GB)	Sakhee	127
ASK (GB)	Sadler’s Wells	126
CASUAL CONQUEST (Ire)	Hernando	126
FAMOUS NAME (GB)	Dansili	126
MAIN AIM (GB)	Oasis Dream	126
NEVER ON SUNDAY (Fr)	Sunday Break	126
OVERDOSE (GB)	Starborough	126
TARTAN BEARER (Ire)	Spectrum	126

THE SUMMER MILE STAKES AT ASCOT

Imbongi
(Photo : Summerhill/HKJC)

IMBONGI’S BIGGEST CHALLENGE

The Summer Mile Stakes has always been a good race, as it provides an opportunity for the best milers in Europe to maintain their sharpness while they’re waiting for the next big Group One challenge later in the season. We doubt though, that the race has ever attracted the quality of contenders that line-up on Saturday at 2:50 pm (that’s English time, of course, which means 3:50pm here).

The first three past the post in Royal Ascot’s Queen Anne Stakes (Gr.1), Paco Boy, Cesare and Aqlaam, line up again here, and so Imbongi will really have his work cut out if he’s to feature in the money. According to Racing Post, he’s in with something of a squeak, as the fourth highest rated horse in the field. Paco Boy and Cesare each have a Racing Post rating of 135, Aqlaam 134, and Imbongi 133, which means there’s not much in it, if ratings matter. Of course, that’s not to say there aren’t others in the field, but it certainly seems, on current form, these are the chief protagonists.

What the race will certainly do, is tell us where Imbongi sits in the pantheon of the worlds best milers, because this just about represents the best form in the world this year. From all accounts, he’s well and ready to run, so for South Africa’s sake, let’s keep everything crossed.