Flaming June it was not at Ascot on Tuesday morning as Criterion, a contender for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes in 15 days’ time at the Royal meeting, set foot on the course for the first time. Criterion worked over a mile, accelerating steadily for the final four furlongs, but his Australian trainer, David Hayes, still saw enough through the gloom and steady drizzle to feel that his horse could give him an English summer to remember.
Australian sprinters, thickset and brutishly strong, have become a familiar sight at the Royal meeting since the exceptional Choisir completed the double of the King’s Stand Stakes and Golden [now Diamond] Jubilee Stakes in 2003.
Criterion, though, may herald a new front for the Australians at Ascot. Physically, he is lean and athletic – “what we at home would call a more European-style of horse”, as Hayes put it – and he had enough stamina as a three-year-old to win the Australian Derby at Randwick in April 2014. If he runs well at the season’s showpiece meeting on 17 June, some of Hayes’s colleagues might be persuaded to follow his lead with middle-distance horses of their own next year.
“He couldn’t get past that horse on the Al Bahathri [gallop in Newmarket] last time,” Hayes said after Criterion had eased away from his galloping companion on Tuesday morning. “So we were very relieved to see him go past and beat him today. He’s made a lot of improvement with the change in environment.
“The horse was very comfortable [on the turf] at Ascot, which is a nice thing two weeks from the race. The most important thing is that he was very relaxed here, he’s taken it all in his stride and what I was most thrilled with was the rate of recovery after the gallop; that’s what I took most note of.
“He worked over a mile and increased [his speed in] the last half-mile. We didn’t time him, we just wanted him to have a good hit-out on the course proper and the track was in immaculate condition.”
Criterion is a Group One winner already this year in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick on 11 April and finished third in another Group One, the QEII Cup at Sha Tin in Hong Kong, only 15 days later. Yet it is a sign of the likely standard of the Prince of Wales’s Stakes this year that he can be backed at 16-1 to win a race that could bring together an outstanding field of contenders from around the world.
Free Eagle, trained in Ireland by Dermot Weld, is the current ante-post favourite, just ahead of Al Kazeem, from Roger Charlton’s stable in Wiltshire, who won the race two seasons ago, and The Grey Gatsby, the winner of the French Derby and Irish Champion Stakes in 2014.
Ectot and Cirrus Des Aigles are two possible, and very credible, contenders from France, but the wider international challenge is more impressive still. Criterion is due to be joined in the starting stalls by California Chrome, last year’s Kentucky Derby winner, and Spielberg, who beat a field including two previous Japan Cup winners in the autumn Tenno Sho, one of Japan’s most prestigious Group One events, in November.
“There’s the American, and the Japanese and the Australian, so they’re coming from all directions and taking on some amazing locals,” Hayes said. “So I would say that it will be a very hard race to win. Any Group One is hard, never mind at Royal Ascot, but if all the imports that are coming bring their A game, it’s going to be like an Olympics for horses.”
Hayes has yet to settle on a jockey for Criterion at Ascot, with Frankie Dettori and Ryan Moore, two possible partners from the European ranks, both expected to be claimed to ride opponents.
“I think Frankie’s got a commitment and we have offered it to Ryan Moore but if we can’t get Ryan Moore we’ll be looking at an Australian option,” Hayes said. “The options are Craig Williams, who won the Queen Elizabeth on him, Damien Oliver, who is a household name at home and will be riding at the meeting, and Chad Schofield [Criterion’s pilot in Tuesday’s gallop], who is one of the most talented young riders in Australia. All three of the Australian jockeys are world class, so I’m not worried about who I put on. It’s more important to have the right horse.”
There are few major races in Australia that Hayes has not won at least once and he saddled Jeune to win the Melbourne Cup, that country’s most famous race, as long ago as 1994. He has had only one previous runner at the Royal meeting, however, sending out Nicconi to finish fourth behind Equiano in the King’s Stand Stakes in 2010.
“Jeune was that style of horse,” Hayes said on Tuesday, looking at Criterion after his gallop. “He was a very good-looking chestnut, with the ability to sprint and stay, and this horse has that. You could put him in Australia in a Group One mile and he’d be one of the favourites, and he’s a Derby winner at a mile and a half as well.”
Criterion holds entries for the Eclipse Stakes, the Sussex Stakes and the Irish Champion Stakes later in the summer but is unlikely to run unless his outing at the Royal meeting is judged a success.
“He’s had what you’d call a European preparation,” Hayes said. “He hasn’t been out of work since last June. Australians normally spell [rest] their horses but he’s been on a constant run of well-spaced races, which really suits him.
“It’s all about the value it can add to the horse. He’s got a lot of tricks, in a Group One over 1500m [seven-and-a-half furlongs] two starts back, he was beaten an inch and they beat the course record, so he’s not a one-trick pony. He can sprint and stay, which gives him a lot of appeal as a stallion in Australia.
“When you travel you have to leave options open and if he runs well we’ll make a decision three or four days afterwards – but it would only take one below-par run and he would come home straight away. If he’s racing well, we might enjoy the English summer.”
