Shoemark travels from last to first on red-letter day

It was the proverbial baptism of fire. On Thursday Kieran Shoemark, riding at his first Royal Ascot, had Maths Prize safely loaded into the stalls for the Britannia Handicap and was visualising how his ride on the quietly fancied 14-1 shot might unfold.

Then Maths Prize suddenly erupted beneath him. The gelding thrashed around in that claustrophobic space, getting his near-hind leg trapped on a narrow ledge that ran alongside Maths Prize’s flanks. Shoemark could see the Roger Charlton-trained three-year-old had also damaged his head; it later transpired Maths Prize had lost one of his teeth and torn away a strip of his gum.

“As soon as I jumped off he never went a yard,” the jockey reflects, “so I just eased him down. I thought it was going to be one of those days.”