Delegator all set for Royal Ascot

Godolphin's five-year-old was impressive in winning the Group 2 Duke Of York Stakes at York on Wednesday.

Godolphin's Delegator will take on some of the world's top sprinters in the Golden Jubilee Stakes at England's Royal Ascot next month.

The five-year-old was impressive in winning the Group 2 Duke Of York Stakes at York on Wednesday and will now be prepared for the Group 1 race on June 18.

"He will go for the Golden Jubilee Stakes as he wants fast ground and a fast-run six furlongs so he can use his turn of foot," Simon Crisford, Godolphin's racing manager, said. "He travels very well in his races, so we will certainly keep him at six furlongs at the moment."

Delegator's victory came after a frustrating 2010 season that saw him race only three times due to a niggling affliction.

"We would have liked to have started Delegator's 2010 campaign over six furlongs but unfortunately he was held up by a wart on his pastern that kept irritating him," Crisford said.

"In the end, we had to give him minor surgery and that meant we missed most of the campaign, which was incredibly annoying because it was such a tiny thing but cost so much.

"By the time that we did get him racing, there weren't many sprints to run him in and we had the Breeders' Cup Mile to consider. The ground was a little bit loose for him when he ran in the Challenge Stakes at Newmarket and he might have bounced after his run at Newbury.

"He had a quarter-crack when he got on to the track in America - before the Breeders' Cup Mile - and his run out there was a little disappointing. The farriers did a great job rebuilding his foot throughout the winter so he has been very inactive. As horses get older, they do mature and let down a bit. They get that senior look about them.

"Delegator has had irritating things wrong that have prevented him from getting to the racecourse. They have been really minor things but have taken months to get over."