ITV Racing commentator Richard Hoiles on the highs and lows of Royal Ascot
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The dust has settled on another memorable Royal Ascot, so the Front Runner took the chance to chew over some of the biggest talking points with ITV commentator Richard Hoiles, who had the best seat in the house during a week that included a historic royal winner, Frankie Dettori's farewell and a host of big-priced winners.
Aidan O'Brien and many of the other usual suspects excelled last week but it was Shaquille's victory after giving lengths away in the Commonwealth Cup that stood out most for Hoiles. It was a first Group 1 success for Malton trainer Julie Camacho, who trains alongside her husband and assistant Steve Brown.
"The pyramid can be quite narrow at the top and you get used to hearing from the same trainers during the week, so it's nice to have that element of owners and trainers who appreciate just having a runner being able to succeed at the highest level," says Hoiles, who called his first royal meeting in 1998. "You might have expected him to flatten out after missing the start but he kept going past them all."
The other horse who caught his eye was Mostahdaf, an emphatic winner of the Prince of Wales's Stakes. He was somehow sent off at 10-1 against five quality rivals but won like an odds-on shot and it will be interesting to see whether he can back it up if he does line up in the Group 1 Juddmonte International at York in August.
"I was impressed because of the calibre of the horses he beat," says Hoiles. "I wasn't surprised he travelled well but I was amazed he managed to sustain it. Even when he got to the front I thought he might have quickened up best against some stayers who might come back to him but he ran away with it. It will be fascinating to see if he's as good as that performance suggests next time."
Those who followed the action will know Mostahdaf was far from the biggest shock of the week. We had 17 winners sent off at 10-1 or bigger, including Valiant Force, who landed the Norfolk at 150-1, and Khaadem, an 80-1 winner of a Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes. In short, it was not the easiest week for punters.
The impulse is to put that down to rotten luck but Hoiles suggests we should not be too surprised by the number of upsets last week given the quality of the horses lining up, coupled with a high volume of runners and the chance of in-running luck being a crucial factor.
"The thing I've learned down the years with the big prices at Royal Ascot is there's a greater percentage of horses capable of winning every race, because they're good," says Hoiles. "If you go to a smaller meeting, some horses might not have the ability to score, even when it's set up for them. Because they're all good horses at Ascot, they can all take advantage in the right circumstances."
The stars certainly seemed to align in the King George V Stakes on Thursday, which provided the most significant result of the week when Desert Hero gave the King and Queen their first winner at the meeting since the death of Queen Elizabeth II last year. That result was closely followed in the popularity stakes by Courage Mon Ami's Gold Cup win under Frankie Dettori, who took his final Royal Ascot rides before his well-documented retirement at the end of the year.
"From a personal point of view, I loved seeing the royal winner because of the longevity of the colours and the history of that," says Hoiles. "I was also pleasantly surprised by how much King Charles seemed to engage with the week and having a winner obviously helped. Similarly with Dettori's success, we really must not lose sight of how useful those kinds of stories are for putting racing in the mainstream. In light of the recent protests, it's important to make the sport appear mainstream against a niche rights group."
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The Front Runner is our unmissable email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, a four-time Racing Reporter of the Year award winner, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content.
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