IT is fair to say that my neck of the woods is blessed with its fair share of northern powerhouses.

Kevin Ryan has come close to classic glory this spring, Michael Dods has few peers when it comes to training sprinters, with Azure Blue his latest Group 1 winner in waiting and Richard Fahey has been unearthing promising two-year-olds during the second half of May like it’s going out of fashion.

However, there can be little doubt the ‘Cock of the North’ at present is Karl Burke who has put together a formidable team attracting big spending owners in the process.

The list of patrons at Spigot Lodge includes Amo Racing, Clipper Logistics and Sheikh Mohammed Obaid, to name but three.

With seven pattern winners already chalked up in 2023, Burke will be sending a bulging squad of talent to Royal Ascot which will contain a clutch of high-class juveniles.

Better performance

Top of the list is the unbeaten Elite Status who followed up his three lengths debut win on soft ground at Doncaster with an even better performance on a sounder surface in the Listed National Stakes at Sandown 19 days later.

Coincidentally, he is by Havana Grey who won the same five furlongs event for the same outfit six years earlier. Facing nine opponents, eight of which were previous winners, he blew the field apart with a five-length win.

Burke described afterwards how the Sheikh Mohammed Obaid-owned colt quickened twice during the race, which is backed up by the sectionals with Elite Status covering the third and fourth furlongs in 11.08 and 11.25 seconds respectively.

With the Albany, Chesham and Queen Mary Stakes already on his CV, the Middleham trainer has first class prospects of ticking off the Norfolk Stakes, too, later this month with this hugely exciting colt.

Make a note, too, of recent seven furlongs winner Fallen Angel. The Haydock scorer provided Too Darn Hot with his first winner as a sire and she is out of the Group 2 May Hill Stakes winner Agnes Stewart.

Not qualified for the Chesham Stakes at the Royal meeting, she was far from fully wound up, according to Clipper Logistics racing manager Joe Foley and has a lot more to offer. Covering the final three furlongs in 34.55 seconds, she looks pattern class.

DRAMATISED won the Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot last June and booked her return with a length win in the Group 2 Temple Stakes at Haydock last Saturday.

Not seen since finishing runner-up at Keeneland on Breeders’ Cup night in early November, the Showcasing filly made full use of her three-year-old sex allowance in receipt of 11lb from the majority of her rivals.

With retained rider Danny Tudhope unable to do the weight, William Buick took over and, following Burke’s advice to stick to the stands’ side rail having walked the course earlier, she stayed on strongly to defeat Equilateral.

Significantly, the first four home were drawn in stalls 10, 13, 14 and 11 with those berthed wider failing to get involved. Perhaps an element of caution should be addressed to the performance.

The Clipper Logistics-owned filly’s programme is already mapped out with the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes next, followed by the Nunthorpe Stakes at York.

Even allowing for her being victorious at the track as a juvenile, one would favour the latter option, if Dramatised is to gain her first Group 1 win.

Five and a half furlongs is believed to have stretched her stamina in the US last backend and, the flat five on the Knavesmire will be more to her liking than the stiff unforgiving climb to the finish at Ascot against battled hardened older sprinters.

WITH a furlong to run, it looked likely that Sir Michael Stoute was set to win the Brigadier Gerard Stakes at Sandown for a 12th time as last year’s Derby winner Desert Crown breezed to the front.

However, his supporters hadn’t catered for the late thrust of former Group 1 winner Hukum who was returning from an almost identical layoff (356 days) to collar Richard Kingscote’s mount in the shadows of the post.

While it must have been frustrating for the 10-times champion trainer to see his stable star lose his unbeaten record and continue his recent luckless run, all is not lost and he remains a leading contender for the top 10 and 12 furlongs prizes this summer and beyond.

Sections

Returning from such a long absence, racing on the outside with no cover, and asked to quicken three times, it is worth noting Desert Crown’s sectionals during the seventh, eighth and ninth furlongs – 12.15, 11.40 and 11.80secs – compared to winner’s – 12.56, 11.71 and 11.84secs.

Had the runner-up got more cover, and been delivered later, there is a strong possibility the result would have been different.

Either the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot or the Eclipse at Sandown could provide the four-year-old with the opportunity to redress the balance.

JANE Chapple-Hyam trained her first Royal Ascot winner in 2009. Thirteen years later, Saffron Beach and Claymore won in the space of 24 hours at the Royal fixture last summer. The Newmarket-based Aussie is dreaming of more success at flat racing’s premier meeting later this month having unleashed the appropriately named Born To Rock at Yarmouth in late May.

First season stallion Soldier’s Call, a Royal Ascot winner himself, has made a spectacular start to his new career and he is responsible for the filly who was acquired for 110,000gns at the breeze-ups less than three weeks before she made her racecourse debut.

Reported to have worked well with stable companion El Bodon who finished runner-up half an hour earlier on the same card, Born To Rock justified sustained market support with a blistering display of raw speed.

Impressive

Professional throughout and always to the fore, the most impressive aspect of the performance was the manner in which she put the race to bed between the two and one furlong markers in 10.72 seconds.

Despite the final furlong taking her 11.58 seconds, she still scored by four and a quarter lengths. It is not uncommon for Royal Ascot juvenile winners to begin their careers at Yarmouth with Ardad (2016) and The Lir Jet (2020) scoring on their debuts before following up at the Berkshire venue.

Currently vying for favouritism, she looks set to play a major part in the Queen Mary Stakes on the second day of the meeting. After all, it has become the norm for Australians to have winners at Royal Ascot.