IF Oisin Murphy couldn’t sleep after his defeat on King’s Lynn at Royal Ascot, then Ryan Moore must still be zonked now following the nightmare run for the colt in the Wokingham!
Under Murphy, King’s Lynn was seventh in the King’s Stand behind Oxted – tipped in this column — and third with Moore in the Wokingham to the vastly improved Rohaan.
Murphy, Ascot’s top gun rider of the week, said: “I got it wrong on King’s Lynn. I should have been aware they were going so quickly and the pace was going to collapse. I was following the right ones – why would I move when I had the first and second favourite in my eyeline?
“I ran into a dead end. I didn’t sleep on Tuesday night.”
King’s Lynn, owned by The Queen, has been one of the unluckiest horses all season, and is a prime example of a trainer knowing he has a good one on his hands.
Handler Andrew Balding has had a glint in his eye over King’s Lynn since the start of the season. He knew.
We can see that in the way the horse has been campaigned.
Balding started him off in handicap company at Newbury, incidentally where the form has worked out really well.
Despite being beaten, King’s Lynn was sent next to Chester for a conditions race where rated 95 he was only just touched off by the 106 El Astronaute.
Still badly in on ratings Balding sent King’s Lynn to Haydock for a Listed event he won, and then he was in Group 1 company rated 107. In the Wokingham he was rated 100.
Basically Balding knew he had at least a Group 2 sprinter on his hands, possibly even better.
Balding was outstanding at Royal Ascot. He’s having an amazing season. He’s just very good. Classy.
The Doyler
Back at Ascot, I was delighted to see James Doyle on the scoresheet in the Jersey on Godolphin’s Creative Force.
Now don’t get me wrong, as Doyle makes a decent living with Godolphin, but having been Nr1 for the late Prince Khalid Abdullah and Nr1 for Speed bin Suroor he now to a certain extent picks up the pieces at Godolphin. He’s got so much talent he deserves to be winning at places like Ascot.
Also a mention for Chris Wright, the owner of Wonderful Tonight, who blitzed her field for the very talented and amusing – even though he’s French – David Menuisier.
Chris has had many good horses over the years and deserves all the success that comes for chucking money at a game for so long.
He was also one of the owners who enjoyed landing the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf with Chriselliam in 2013 only for the filly suffering shortly after and having to be put down.
He’s had the highs and lows. And always wanted more.
Ascot success
We love seeing your colours Chris, and I hope you had a wonderful night after Wonderful Tonight’s success. I suspect you did!
Royal Ascot gets a ‘Yeeehaaa’ from this column. I hope you enjoyed it all on ITV and thank you to all the jockeys, lads and lasses who spoke so well to me after the races.
You make the sport even more exciting and dramatic for all of us.
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