“It’s all going rather well!” So spake the Queen, we are told, at about halfway in the Hardwicke Stakes, when her purple and red colours were being carried in a prominent position by the smooth-travelling Dartmouth. But the monarch was about to be put through the wringer in a way that any long-suffering punter would instantly recognise.
First there was the sustained battle up the home straight with the Irish raider Highland Reel, who made it fairly clear that he did not want to go past his rival but might do it anyway out of sheer talent. Dartmouth prevailed by a head, sparking joyous scenes in the Royal Box which were cut short almost immediately by that unwelcome sound, the bingly-bong of a stewards’ inquiry.
Who can predict what the stewards will do these days? Results have been unexpectedly altered, others have been scandalously allowed to stand. Any inquiry is a nail-biter if you have an interest in the outcome.
Except, possibly, this one. For, while the crowd here savoured the delicious possibility of the stewards disqualifying the Queen at Royal Ascot in the week of her 90th birthday and a thousand jokers told their friends, “It’s sure to be thrown out,” all understood that the actual chance of this happening this time was essentially nil.
Nor was any injustice committed thereby. Dartmouth certainly leaned on Highland Reel in the final furlong, carrying him towards the far rail, but it would be quite a leap to say the outcome was affected, especially in view of the runner-up’s evident ambivalence about hitting the front. What really made the difference was Seamie Heffernan, aboard Highland Reel, dropping his whip more than a furlong out, an ironic turn of events for a man who was given a nine-day whip ban the day before.
Heffernan confirmed his position in the Royal good books by telling the stewards that, despite the interference, he had never been prevented from pushing Highland Reel out towards the line, at which point the decision really was a formality. Even so, the Queen beamed in response to the PA system’s news that the placings would remain unaltered.
Impressively cool throughout was the winning trainer, Sir Michael Stoute, who was in mid-interview on Channel 4 when the verdict was announced. “I saw the replay and I couldn’t see anything happening,” he said, adding a pointed reference to Friday’s race in which his Kings Fete was “murdered … and they made no move”. “He did lean on the other horse but I couldn’t see a danger, to be honest.”
It is a triumph for those who run the Queen’s racing interests that they have now managed to provide her with two high-profile successes at the Royal meeting in the space of four years, following Estimate’s Gold Cup win in 2013, achieved by a similarly narrow margin. Other owners who spend more on their bloodstock left here without once making it to the winner’s enclosure.
The sport of racing has always relished the Queen’s patronage, while fearing that her heirs may lack her enthusiasm, leaving the future of Royal Ascot in some doubt. But those doubts seemed laid to rest here by John Warren, the Queen’s racing manager, who spoke of Prince Charles’s burgeoning interest at the end of a week in which he owned a couple of runners.
“About 30 years ago, he told me that racehorse ownership was probably like gardening,” Warren reported. “Until you owned your own garden, you’d never quite understand what it was all about and when you own your own garden, you start looking after it and you have to concentrate.
“He said, coming into Ascot, he was so thrilled. The anticipation of owning a horse to come here was so enormous, he said he couldn’t explain the feeling. And now I actually think he’s seriously got the bug, which is so important for British racing, of course. Both he and the Duchess of Cornwall are absolutely smitten.”
Dartmouth’s victory had another importance for the royal party, who were allowed to end the week on a high after the loss of another horse, Guy Fawkes, who broke a leg and had to be put down after running here on Thursday.
Having won this Group Two contest, Dartmouth must now try his luck in the very best races and the quality of previous Hardwicke winners suggests he has a fine chance of proving top-class at some stage. That moment could even come in next month’s King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, named in honour of the parents of his owner and run over the same course and distance as the Hardwicke.
“We’ll go away and think about it,” said the ever-cautious Stoute. But it is only six years since he won both races in the same summer with Harbinger, who, like Dartmouth, was ridden by the Frenchman Olivier Peslier.
Peslier should learn how to win on this horse without prompting a stewards’ inquiry, having done the same thing at Goodwood last summer. But it seems he has nothing to learn about royal etiquette. Asked by a compatriot here about how he approaches the Queen, he replied: “Well, there’s no French kiss. And after the race, there’s no high-five.”
