The action at Royal Ascot next week will be enlivened by the largest ever raiding party from North America, with five US‑based trainers expected to field a total of 14 runners. Even more are to be expected next year, according to connections of those horses, a result of the handful of impressive American winners at the meeting in recent years, which has also prompted increasing interest from US television.
For the first time, NBC’s sports network will devote more than four hours each day to next week’s racing and Ascot officials have also been told that live shots from the track will be featured on NBC’s influential Today Show. Watched by more than 4m people each day, the Today Show can be expected to take an amused interest in the royal procession that precedes racing and also in the outfits worn in the stands, which reliably range from elegant to outrageous.
While that TV coverage may increase America’s appetite for Ascot, the victory last year by Tepin in the Queen Anne Stakes has apparently converted many who previously doubted whether US horses could ever have a realistic chance here.
Tepin’s talent was never in question but it was by no means clear that she would be able to show it on ground that was soft even by European standards, over an unfamiliar straight course and without the benefit of the anti-bleeding drug, Lasix, or nasal strips.
Allowed to start at 11-2, having been odds-on in her previous four races, she won anyway, becoming the first US winner at Royal Ascot trained by someone other than Wesley Ward.
“That really got us thinking that it is possible for someone other than Mr Ward to win races over here,” said Riley Mott at the annual pre-Ascot press conference for international visitors. Mott’s father, Bill, will saddle Long On Value in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes a week on Saturday.
“Obviously winning at Ascot is very prestigious, especially for any American trainer coming over here,” said Ginny DePasquale, assistant to Todd Pletcher, whose American Patriot goes for the Queen Anne. “It’s the ultimate racing in the world, as far as we’re concerned. So, yeah, it would definitely be a feather in our cap.”
Tepin’s trainer, Mark Casse, will send over La Coronel for the Coronation Stakes, while Graham Motion is to be represented by Miss Temple City in either the Queen Anne or the Duke Of Cambridge. Along with Ward’s 10 runners, that makes for a US team of 14, easily surpassing the previous record of 10.
“When I first started coming, it was even foreign to me,” said Ward, who has had seven winners at the Royal meeting and now counts Ascot as his favourite track. “Tepin last year really opened the doors. A lot of the owners and trainers are going to see it on national TV and they’re going to want to bring the best horses we have.
“I’m hopeful that in years to come that all of America’s best grass horses come to race here. Everybody’s going to be able to turn their TV on and watch the races and see everything that goes on and want to be part of it.
“For 50, 60 years, you guys have been going over [to the US] and every time you run in a Group One race you’re the favourite and you win. So everybody’s a little bit, they don’t really want to go to the lion’s den.”
Ward accepted that not being able to use race-day Lasix had put off some in the US from racing in Britain. “It’s a question mark for me as well. Yesterday, when I worked all the horses, I was sitting right there with the vet, scoping every horse to see if they [had] bled. Fortunately, the horses I did bring over are young horses and they didn’t bleed.”
While Ward clearly still values being able to use Lasix on his US runners, he said he would prefer for all major racing nations to ban race-day medication and believes America will get there eventually. “I think what they [US racing authorities] are doing is sort of weaning everything off. They’ve taken away all the steroids and everything. Now the only thing that’s permitted is the Bute and the Lasix. You’re bringing a very sound horse over with no medication, essentially.”
Ward’s Ascot success has mostly been achieved with precocious two-year-olds, some of whom have seemed well ahead of their peers in physical development. As on previous visits, he was asked about private concerns held by some in Britain that his horses might be gaining an unfair advantage through the relatively relaxed US approach to medication of racehorses.
“They’re taking hair samples,” he said, referring to the British Horseracing Authority, “and they can test whatever they want to test and hold it for the next 20 years. I’m not worried about that at all.
“It’s a craft I’ve learned. That’s sort of how I got a niche in a very, very tough training circuit at Santa Anita when I was 21, 22. I’ve been breaking horses since I was 10, 11, 12 years old. So I’ve brought that to where ... I was able to win a lot of early two-year-old races and beat some of the better-bred, better-quality two-year-olds because mine were more ready and more focused.
“I’m bringing a better and better horse over here now, higher quality, and we’re getting lucky and I hope it continues. I can’t say how anyone else trains horses, only me.”
Friday tips
York 1.50 Sosian 2.20 Power Game 2.55 Our Little Pony 3.30 Sun Lover 4.05 The Feathered Nest (nb) 4.40 Theydon Grey 5.15 Opposition
Sandown 2.00 Glaceon 2.35 Falmouth Light 3.10 Call Me Grumpy 3.45 Shargiah 4.20 Time Chaser 4.50 Dream Machine 5.25 Dominating
Newton Abbot 2.10 Old Harry Rocks 2.45 Red Hanrahan 3.20 Gowell 3.55 Bagad Bihoue 4.30 Foxy Act 5.00 Goonjim 5.30 Country’N’Western
Chepstow 5.55 Klosters 6.25 So Sleek 7.00 Squiggley 7.30 Sheer Intensity 8.05 Frank Bridge 8.35 Showmethewayavrilo
Goodwood 6.05 Royal Household 6.35 Joe Packet 7.10 Mudaarab 7.40 Road To Dubai 8.15 Gloriosus (nap) 8.45 Harbour Rock
Aintree 6.15 Petrou 6.50 Minotaur 7.20 Buachaill Alainn 7.55 Curious Carlose 8.25 Theflyingportrait 8.55 Gold Chain
