Ryan Moore broke the post-war record for winners at Royal Ascot when Aloft gave him a ninth winner of the week in the Queen’s Vase on Friday.
However, the crack English jockey was on the receiving end of a master-class from Christophe Soumillon in the feature race on day 4.
Riding Ervedya for the Aga Khan, Soumillion threaded his way through traffic to deliver the French-trained filly with perfect timing in the £375,000 (US$595,260) Cronation Stakes for fillies over 1,600m.
Photo: Reuters
Soumillon pounced just as Moore was entertaining thoughts of victory aboard Found, who went to the front 300m from home. Yet having reeled the leader in, Soumillion had to contend with the even later flourish of Kevin Manning aboard Lucida.
It was a pulsating finish to a championship race that saw Ervedya prevail by a neck from Found, with Lucida a half-length back in third place. Miss Temple City, the US challenger, acquitted herself with credit in taking fourth place.
Soumillon has long been among the finest jockeys in Europe, but this was just his second Royal Ascot winner — and his first at Ascot itself. His previous victory aboard Valixir — also in the Aga Khan’s silks — was gained at York in 2006, when Ascot racecourse was being redeveloped.
“I was lucky to find a gap through them,” an elated Soumillon said. “I knew Found was the horse to beat and so I stayed behind her. Maybe that’s why we won. If I had challenged down the outside she might have found the [race] distance a bit too far for her.”
The winning trainer, Jean-Claude Rouget, was equally ecstatic.
“It has been a deep dream of mine to win a Group 1 race here,” Rouget said.
At least Found ran up to her best under Moore, who had high hopes of winning the newly inaugurated £375,000 Commonwealth Cup aboard Hootenanny. However, the American speedball failed to fire over the 1,200m journey.
The race was won by an emerging star in Muhaarar, who exploded under jockey Dane O’Neill to scorch clear of Limato to win by more than three lengths.
“It was all very easy and a bit surreal,” O’Neill said.
Owned by Sheikh Hamdan al-Maktoum, Muhaarar is trained by Charlie Hills, who saddled Dutch Connection to win the Jersey Stakes on Wednesday.
“This is probably the best horse I have trained,” said Hills, who also saddled the fourth-placed finisher, Salt Island. “He did it in great style.”
On another warm day at the royal racecourse, two jockeys to whom Royal Ascot had been unkind this year experienced better fortunes.
Jamie Spencer, so unfortunate to be denied victory on The Grey Gatsby in the Prince Of Wales’ Stakes on Wednesday, found some consolation aboard Balios in the King Edward VII Stakes.
Spencer brought the David Simcock-trained horse through from last place to collar Mr Singh after the favorite, Stravagante, had injured himself during the race.
Stravagante is trained by Michael Stoute, who suffered similar misfortune when his horse Capal Path, owned by the Queen of England, was injured in a race on Thursday.
Having stayed overnight at a local veterinary clinic, Capel Path was moved to Newmarket on Friday for further examination.
However, Stoute’s misfortunes were later compounded when Yarrow, his runner in the last race, was quickly eased out of the contest by jockey Pat Smullen.
Although Richard Hughes had ridden some fancied horses throughout the week, the jockey had yet to visit the winner’s enclosure at his last Royal Ascot before his retirement.
That changed when Hughes rode two winners. Appropriately, the first of them came in the Albany Stakes aboard Illuminate, who is trained by Richard Hannon. It was with the support of Hannon’s father, also Richard, that Hughes rose to the top of his profession.
“He is going to leave a big hole,” an emotional Hannon said of Hughes, who is also his brother-in-law.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite