The Queen’s hopes of seeing her colours carried to victory at Royal Ascot in the week of her 90th birthday celebrations suffered a miserable reverse here on Thursday as Guy Fawkes, her runner in the King George V Handicap, sustained a serious injury in the early stages of the race and was subsequently put down.
Guy Fawkes sustained a compound fracture of his right foot after about two furlongs of the 12-furlong contest and unseated Pat Smullen, his jockey, who emerged from the incident unscathed. He was immediately assessed by racecourse vets, but his injury was so severe that he could not be saved.
The Queen has not had a winner at Royal Ascot since 2013, when Estimate famously came home in front in the Gold Cup, the meeting’s feature event, which was run in honour of her 90th birthday on Thursday.
Guy Fawkes was her fourth runner of the week, with all three horses to carry the royal colours on Wednesday finishing unplaced. She has three more chances to register a win this week, with Fabricate and Daphne declared for the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes and Queen’s Vase respectively on Friday’s card, and Dartmouth, who recorded a win at Ascot in July last year, due to line up for the Group Two Hardwicke Stakes on Saturday.
Frankel could record his first Royal Ascot success as a sire on Friday when Queen Kindly, a wide-margin winner at Catterick this month, lines up for the opening race, the Albany Stakes.
Frankel, who recorded one of his most impressive successes in the Queen Anne Stakes, has enjoyed an excellent start to his new career as a stallion, with four of his five foals to reach the track so far returning to the winner’s enclosure.
Queen Kindly, who is trained by Richard Fahey and will be ridden by Jamie Spencer, is out of the Lowther Stakes winner Lady Of The Desert, who was twice a runner-up at Group One level. She eased clear of her field to win by five lengths in a five-furlong race at Catterick on 3 June, and is expected to start as one of the market leaders for Friday’s race.
Frankel will also be represented by two more of his early winners on Saturday, when Cunco, the first Frankel foal to race when winning at Newbury on 13 May, lines up against Frankuus, who took a race at Haydock this month, in the Chesham Stakes.
