3 minute read
A look at runners on Day 2 at Royal Ascot with Australian links.
There might not be any Australian horses engaged on Day 2 at Royal Ascot, but it is a day Australian racing fans always take a close interest in.
It was only last year that State Of Rest won the day's signature event, the Group 1 Prince Of Wales's Stakes (2012m), just a few months after winning the Cox Plate.
Dual Cox Plate champion So You Think and internationally-trained Cox Plate placegetters Grandera and Highland Reel are among the others to have won it.
This year's edition has only drawn a field of six, but one runner is closely connected to a horse who has performed at a high level in Australia this season.
The William Haggas-trained My Prospero is a half-brother to My Oberon, a son of Dubawi who won the Group 2 Crystal Mile at The Valley at his first Australian start and was a narrow runner-up to Mr Brightside in this year's Group 1 Doncaster Mile.
My Prospero, who is by Iffraaj, has won three of seven including the Group 2 Prix Eugene Adam (2012m) at Saint-Cloud in France in July last year.
The four-year-old ran third in the St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, the same placing he occupied in the Champions Stakes at Ascot last year, won by Bay Bridge, and only run since was a fourth in the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes won by Modern Games.
Bay Bridge is again a rival in the Prince Of Wales's Stakes, along with last-start Tattersalls Gold Cup winner Luxembourg and Adayar.
My Prospero is one of a few runners on Day 2 at Royal Ascot who are related to horses Australian racing fans know well.
Race 3 – Jumbly: A son of Gleneagles and Thistle Bid, the Joseph O'Brien-trained four-year-old is a half-brother to Bullfinch, a son of Kodiac who Chris Waller paid 370,000gns for at the 2020 Autumn Horses In Training Sale and has won five of 24 and finished runner-up to Not An Option at Flemington last Saturday.
Jumbly has won four of nine starts and is favourite for the Group 2 Duke Of Cambridge Stakes (1609m) for fillies and mares.
Race 5 – Reach For The Moon: The John and Thady Gosden-trained four-year-old will carry the royal silks in the Royal Hunt Cup (1609m), the same colours his older brother Chalk Stream (Sea The Stars) carried to victory in the Listed Australia Day Cup t Warwick Farm earlier this year.
Another sibling, Invictus Prince, who is by Dansili, failed to win in Australia by did beat home all bar Winx in the 2018 Group 1 Winx Stakes.
