'She was by far the best filly' - Tahiyra crowned queen in Coronation after stewards' inquiry scare

Plans in racing and breeding run on multiple timescales and the mark of the best practitioners is their ability to adjust when first thoughts are swept away by events. 

Not much went right for Chris Hayes for much of the Coronation Stakes aboard red-hot favourite Tahiyra, who lost her back end leaving the stalls and was briefly lit up to the extent that she pulled herself three wide in a six-runner race. 

Dermot Weld and Hayes had gone through the various pitfalls that might derail the Irish 1,000 Guineas winner, who was backed down to 8-13 before the off by a public who could not countenance defeat. 

Hayes revealed afterwards that, as good a trainer of horses as Weld is, he may be every bit as good a manager of the humans that ride them. 

“The boss just filled me up with confidence this morning after I walked the course,” said Hayes, who was celebrating his first Royal Ascot winner and had to endure a lengthy stewards' inquiry after Remarquee became short of room around two furlongs from home. 

“I was telling him what I thought might and mightn’t happen and he just said: ‘Do what you always do.’ 

“It was a nice little pat on the back going out and that just gave me the confidence to do the right thing and take her out of it early.

“Sometimes you have to live by the sword and die by the sword, and if it’d went wrong,I’d have had to take the flak. She was by far the best filly.”

Chris Hayes salutes the crowd after Tahiyra wins the Coronation StakesCredit: Edward Whitaker

Weld took his first delivery of two-year-olds from the Aga Khan a decade ago this autumn and has now trained two hugely talented fillies for the emerald green team. Remarkably Tahiyra and Tarnawa are sisters, although Weld pointed out the two champions are not cut from the same cloth.

Weld said: “They’re different. Tarnawa was unbelievably tough and stayed very well. She won the Breeders' Cup Turf and those two very good Group 1s in France for me. She just got beat in the Arc on ground that was just too dead for her on the day. 

“She was a brilliant racemare and this one is equally good. They’re different sorts, this one has more pace. Tarnawa was brilliant and but for that very heavy day and being drawn in the wrong place, she’d have won the Arc. 

“I enjoy training these fillies so much. I know the families and I do my best training them.”

Dermot Weld and Tahiyra after the Coronation Stakes Credit: Edward Whitaker

This was a silky performance on by far the quickest surface Tahiyra has encountered, and while the overall time will not have set too many pulses racing, the fact Hayes didn’t put the question until two out and when in a far from ideal spot marks out her quality, as does the fact her final furlong was her fastest. 

Tahiyra's ability on soft ground means Weld and the Aga Khan team can afford to take a pull, while a step up in trip will also come under consideration. 

“I think the plan always was to give a nice holiday,” said Weld. “She’s had a very busy spring and early summer. We’ll give her a nice break and look at a programme in the autumn."

Asked about trying ten furlongs, he added: “It will be considered, it’s a possibility.”

And what of that other, longer timeline that governs the thinking of those who breed these athletes? When the decision was made to send Tahiyra’s dam to her own stallion, Siyouni, Tarnawa had yet to win a race, for all that she has been second in a Listed event at Navan.

Asked the invidious question where she would like to see Tahiyra race next, Princesse Zahra Aga Khan produced a wonderfully rounded rejoinder: “I’m a breeder and I don’t care what she does. I don’t care as long as she can retire as a broodmare and be happy, healthy and sound. 

“It’s up to Mr Weld. We’ll communicate between all of us, but it doesn’t really matter. She’s done this. She’s going to be a crown jewel anyway. And to have a mare like her dam in the operation – they come along once in a decade, if that.”

Among the beaten horses, there was no quibble at the stewards’ decision to leave the result unchanged, with Remarquee's trainer Ralph Beckett looking at the possibility of making hay while Tahiyra has her summer break.

“She wasn't quick enough to get going when she needed to and by the time she did get rolling the gap was closing,” said Beckett. “You don't see many of ours with a sheepskin noseband and there's a reason she's wearing one – she's still green. 

“She's run her legs off. I'd say we'd go to the Falmouth now." 

Beckett added: “I'm very proud, I'm not disappointed with her in the slightest. The issue is the Guineas was a non-event so she's only had two starts and she's a slow learner."

A head away in third was Sounds Of Heaven, who left Jessica Harrington similarly delighted.

“That was a huge effort and she's a lovely filly going forward,” said Harrington. “That's only her fourth run and to be beaten a length and a quarter by a champion filly is fantastic. We might go to the Falmouth, but we'll see.”

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