Aidan O’Brien brought up his 100th career winner at Royal Ascot in the meeting’s feature race, as Scandinavia got up in the final strides to win a thrilling renewal of the Gold Cup.
It appeared for much of the final furlong that last year’s winner Trawlerman – who wore ski goggles in the paddock to protect his sensitive eyes from the sun – was going to hold off his younger rival.
However, having not had a run so far this season, the last 50 yards of the stamina-sapping two and a half miles caught up with Trawlerman, with last season’s St Leger winner Scandinavia (11-8 favourite) wearing him down under Ryan Moore to win right on the line.
It was certainly not a result the bookmakers were cheering, with Star Sports reporting a £120,000 win bet on O’Brien’s four-year-old at odds of 5-2.
“It’s very special, it’s a very special day for myself and everybody in Ballydoyle,” said O’Brien, whose first winner at the meeting was Harbour Master in 1997.
“There are so many people involved to help a horse get this far. Ryan gave him an absolute class, peach ride.
“That’s just incredible really [100 Royal Ascot] winners, it’s something that we wouldn’t dream of thinking about because for that to happen you could not believe.
“Even this week, it’s literally one race at a time and you don’t even think what it could be or whether it could happen because it’s so competitive, so hard to win races here.”
Earth Shot swoops for Ribblesdale honours
James Doyle got off the mark for the week at Royal Ascot when Earth Shot reeled in Johanna Walsh in a rather dramatic Ribblesdale Stakes.
Hector Crouch was unseated from Lady Roisia coming out of the stalls and the loose horse ended up at the front of the pack, setting Venetia alight who subsequently set a stiff gallop.
Coming off the home bend Joseph O’Brien’s Johanna Walsh kicked clear looking to give his trainer a fifth winner of the week and as Oaks runner-up Legacy Link was seemingly not over those exertions, she looked to have slipped the field.
Doyle was getting a real tune out of William Haggas’ Earth Shot (4-1) out wide though, and despite having three lengths to make up in the final furlong, got up to win by a head, with Gilded Prize back in third.
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Earth Shot broke the hearts of Johanna Walsh supporters late on in the Ribblesdale Stakes on day three at Royal Ascot.
Haggas said: “I need to watch it again as when there is a loose horse, the jump jockeys know what to do and push it out at the next fence but for flat jockeys it is a bit of a new phenomenon and I thought she stayed very well. I didn’t think she would catch the leader at one stage, but she stayed on well.
“I thought she possible should have won at Goodwood last time but she’s always been a beautiful filly and I’ve always said she wants soft ground.
“We always had hopes she would be good and, I guess, for a middle distance filly, winning the Ribblesdale is second best to winning the Oaks but it’s a hell of a prize to win.”
Nola Soul stars in Chesham Stakes for Stack
Nola Soul provided trainer Fozzy Stack with his first Royal Ascot success as he registered a determined victory in the Chesham Stakes.
The Justify colt was prominent in the market at 11-2 having made a winning start to his career at Leopardstown last month, the form of which received a major boost on Wednesday when runner-up King Of Cloughan won the Windsor Castle Stakes.
His chance was also done no harm when the Aidan O’Brien-trained favourite Aix La Chapelle got upset in the starting stalls and had to be withdrawn, leading to a hefty Rule 4 deduction.
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Sky Sports Racing’s Kieran O’Sullivan previews Friday’s Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot as True Love and Precise meet again.
Nola Soul was keen throughout in the hands of Seamie Heffernan, so it is testament to his ability he was still in there pitching at the business end of proceedings and he kept finding inside the last of seven furlongs to prevail by half a length.
Joseph O’Brien’s newcomer On Just Terms filled the runner-up spot, with the front-running Aperoll third and Aix La Chapelle’s well-backed stablemate South Dakota fourth.
Enceladus reigns in King George V battle
Enceladus added to a hugely successful week for Joseph O’Brien following a determined King George V Stakes success.
The Sea The Stars colt (7-1) arrived in Berkshire on the back of a maiden victory at Cork and certainly appreciated the step up to a mile and half.
In the hands of Ryan Moore, the retained rider for Joseph’s father Aidan, Enceladus made his move inside the final two furlongs and he never looked back, providing the trainer with his fourth success of the meeting.
Roger Varian’s Al Azd and the Johnny Murtagh-trained Believed made it a three-way tussle, but Moore kept them at arm’s length to secured his 95th Royal Ascot success by half a length in the famous Niarchos family silks of Flaxman Stables.
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