Believing, Ruling Court Among Strong Group of DRC Grads at Royal Ascot
Mdmar – Dubai – UK
Dubai Racing Carnival and Dubai World Cup day form will be strongly represented throughout all five days of Royal Ascot, which begins tomorrow, Tuesday 17 June.
There are eight Group 1s across the week, the first of which is the opening Queen Anne Stakes. Cairo, second in the G2 Al Rashidiya at Meydan Racecourse in December, takes his chance for trainer Alice Haynes but faces a tough task against favourite Rosallion and three-time US Grade I winner Carl Spackler.
The G1 King Charles III Stakes is always a strong sprint and it sees the return of the first and third from the G1 Al Quoz Sprint on April’s Dubai World Cup card, Believing and Regional. Believing (pictured) is in foal to Frankel but arrives at Ascot in excellent form, according to her trainer George Boughey.
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“It was a huge result in Dubai to get her Group 1 win,” he said. “Her general demeanor and her work had been top class; she’s a filly who has always threatened to win a Group 1.
“The flat six [furlongs] at Meydan suited her down to the ground and she got a brilliant ride from William [Buick]. She couldn’t be in better order. She’s been a very different filly this year.”
Meydan form is also represented by Frost At Dawn, winner of the 2024 G3 Nad Al Sheba Turf Sprint, who runs in the silks of UAE owner Abdulla Al Mansoori.
Ruling Court carries Meydan form into Tuesday’s third Group 1, the St James’s Palace Stakes for three-year-old colts. Winner of the Listed Jumeirah 2000 Guineas, Charlie Appleby’s charge then won the G1 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and faces Field Of Gold, second that day, again here.
“We took Ruling Court out of the Derby due to the [soft] ground, and we can have no excuses with conditions at Ascot,” said Appleby. “It’s a very good renewal of the race and the track and trip will suit. We are looking at stepping up in trip at some point, but he has done very little wrong over a mile so far.”
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New Jockey for Facteur Cheval
The highlight of Wednesday’s action is the G1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes over 2000metres, in which 2024 G1 Dubai Turf winner Facteur Cheval lines up for Jerome Reynier. US-based rider Flavien Prat will be onboard the six-year-old for the first time.
Certain Lad, a winner at the Carnival back in 2020, is also in the field for trainer Jack Channon, while Aidan O’Brien saddled Continuous, who ran down the field in the G2 Dubai Gold Cup.
Dual Meydan winner Cinderella’s Dream returned to UK action with a win at Newmarket last time out and she lines up as favourite in the G2 Duke Of Cambridge Stakes, while Arabian Light, winner of the Lord Glitters Handicap at the Carnival, runs in the Royal Hunt Cup, also on Wednesday.
Trawlerman has run in three G2 Dubai Gold Cups, latterly finishing fifth in April’s running, and takes his chance in Thursday’s G1 Gold Cup, the official feature of the whole meeting. John and Thady Gosden’s gelding aims to go one better than a year ago, when he was second to Kyprios.
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Also on Thursday, The Fingal Raven, second in the Jumeirah 2000 Guineas to Ruling Court, goes for the Britannia Handicap for trainer Jamie Osborne.
The final G1 of the week is the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes on Saturday, which is run over the same 1200metres as the Wokingham in which Symbol Of Honour takes his chance. Winner of the Al Wasl Stakes and Dubai Trophy at Meydan for Appleby, he has won two of his three starts since returning to the UK and is a leading contender here.
The penultimate race of the meeting, the Golden Gates Stakes, sees Norway-based trainer Niels Petersen break new ground with his first runner at the meeting. War Socks was third to Ruling Court in the Listed Jumeirah 2000 Guineas and tackles 2000metres for the first time here.
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The “Mdmar” website which was Founded by Khaled Makhlouf in 2007 for horse and equestrian races is keen to cover and follow all competitions related to horses, from show jumping, Horseracing, speed and endurance races, and purebred Arabian horse beauty shows, which belong to the Arab Gulf countries at home and abroad in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the State of Qatar, the State of Kuwait, the Sultanate of Oman, and the Kingdom of Bahrain.
