Royal Hunt Cup

THE Royal Hunt Cup produced a fine finish in which Wild Tiger (Saeed Bin Suroor/Oisin Murphy) rallied to hold the seemingly irresistible challenge of Sonny Liston (Ralph Beckett/Rossa Ryan) by a head with Perotto (Roger Varian/Tom Marquand) running a cracker on his seasonal return in third, less than a length behind the winner.

Wild Tiger, sent off joint-favourite at 11/2, travelled strongly close up in the centre as the field split into four distinct groups of varying sizes. Those groups coalesced a quarter of a mile from home, with Wild Tiger front and centre, and Sonny Liston tacking over from the near side to track him.

The latter launched a strong challenge inside the final furlong, but Wild Tiger responded again, when joined, to keep his head in front, much to the disbelief of connections of the runner-up, who was finishing second in this race for the second year in a row.

Well travelled

Wild Tiger, a homebred son of Frankel raced at Meydan earlier in the year before winning seven furlong handicaps at Yarmouth and Goodwood. For winning trainer Saeed Bin Suroor, victory was tinged with regret that his role with Godolphin is not as pivotal as it was before Charlie Appleby’s appointment, and his joy at winning was tempered with realism.

“In the past I used to have 220 horses” said Bin Suroor. “Now we have 40 horses and unfortunately, they are not that good. We have to keep a small number that we think might do something, but the majority of them are not very good, which isn’t easy for the stable.

“We try to keep everybody happy and luckily this horse has won at Royal Ascot and that means big things for everybody. We have to keep up our enthusiasm for it because we don’t have a choice. We have to do our best with what we have, but winning a race at Royal Ascot makes it easier.”

Kensington Palace Stakes

THERE aren’t many more eye-catching pedigrees than the one boasted by Doha (Ralph Beckett/Hector Crouch), who produced a career-best effort to land the Listed Kensington Palace Stakes over Ascot’s straight mile. A daughter of Sea The Stars out of dual Arc heroine Treve, Doha races for Sheikh Joaan Al Thani’s Al Shaqab Racing operation, as did her dam.

Doha – sent off at 10/1 in a field of 24, has taken time to fulfil her potential, making her debut only last autumn as a three-year-old, but seems to have benefitted from the drop to a mile despite being bred for further. She travelled kindly on the fast ground tracking favourite Hopeful (Andrew Balding/Mickael Barzalona) who was drawn next to her.

That decision worked out well for Crouch, as Hopeful carried him all the way into the race, hitting the front two furlongs out and coming clear of the others.

Doha tracked her every move, including leaning right when the pair were clear, and her persistent challenge saw her in front mere yards from the line to prevail by a head. The pair came four-and-a-quarter lengths clear of the others, headed by Victoria Falls (Hugo Palmer/Connor Planas), who fared best of those drawn on the far side.

Beckett said: “Royal Ascot is a big deal for Sheikh Joaan and Al Shaqab. It just occurred to me that dropping back to a mile in a race like this, where they go a good gallop, might just play to Doha’s strengths. Obviously she’s bred to get a mile-and-a-half well, and more, so it was a roll of the dice, but it was worth doing and it worked out.”

Windsor Castle Stakes

AVAILABLE at 20/1 when the market opened, Ain’t Nobody (Kevin Ryan/Jamie Spencer) landed a sustained gamble in the Windsor Castle Stakes over five furlongs, with the Carlisle winner taking the step up to Listed company in his stride to win at 5/1.

Tracking the speedy US raider Gabaldon (Jose Francisco D’Angelo/Emisael Jaramillo) on the stands side, Spencer looked booked for second a furlong from home, but his mount responded gamely to hard driving and got up in the last 50 yards as the leader began to come to the end of his tether. The winning margin was a length at the line, with Aviation Time (Richard Hughes/Danny Tudhope) third, a further half-length behind the runner-up.

“It panned out perfectly,” was the verdict of the winning rider. “Obviously, it was such a big field you don’t know what’s going to happen. After going 100 yards, I was following the American horse, getting a good lead; he was always going to bring me as far as I wanted, and Ain’t Nobody was tough at the finish.”