ASCOT, ENGLAND // The great British weather has done its best to scupper Royal Ascot that starts Tuesday, but despite heavy rain over the past three days, the show must go on.
Ascot has seen its best-laid plans go slightly awry, with the five-day meeting set to be staged on the softest ground since 1998.
This is a racecourse that prides itself on attracting the cream of international competition, but on Monday, veteran sprinter Sole Power, who has lined up in the King’s Stand Stakes every year since his debut in 2011, was forced to miss Tuesday’s 1,000-metre dash he won in 2013 and 2014 due to the prevailing good to soft going.
Wesley Ward’s Acapulco is another member of the deep foreign raiding party that was attempting to plunder the prestige that a win at Ascot offers, but the American challenger was pulled on Monday afternoon to be possibly rerouted to Friday’s Group 1 Commonwealth Cup. Goldream, the reigning champion who had a wretched Dubai World Cup Carnival, could come out this morning.
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However, not all the international horses are running from the rain-softened ground, and American trainer Mark Casse is confident that his US champion mare Tepin will handle the conditions in the Queen Anne Stakes, the opening race of 30 at the meeting.
Tepin has shown to a certain extent she handles soft ground having won a Grade 1 in America in such conditions, and the Breeders’ Cup Mile winner is on a victorious sequence of six. Yet, she faces a series of obstacles that made life so difficult for previous international raiders.
Dubai World Cup winner Animal Kingdom, who was 11th of 13 in the Queen Anne in 2013, and Able Friend, Hong Kong’s champion miler who was sixth to Dubai Turf winner Solow 12 months ago, both found the unique demands of Ascot beyond them.
Tepin must race for the first time on a straight turf mile that has a stiff incline at the finish, on soft ground, without Lasix and her usual nasal strip, all under Julien Leparoux who has never once ridden at this racecourse. Ironically, they would have been perfect conditions for Solow, who misses the race due to injury.
“I really don’t have any major concerns, but most of all is whether she will adapt to the racetrack,” Casse said. “I know there is a lot of good horses in the race and they may beat us, but if we are fortunate enough to win it would have been nice to see Solow in there. It is a bit disappointing, really.”
Tepin faces 13 rivals, which could be reduced further with Qatar Racing’s Arod showing a liking for soft ground about as much as Superman enjoyed holding kryptonite. Among Tepin’s rivals is Godolphin’s Belardo, who has displayed a marked preference for soft going, and William Buick’s mount will be joined in the race by pacemakers Barchan and Toormore.
The Godolphin trio are part of a team of 15 horses set to carry Godolphin’s royal blue silks throughout the day, with Charlie Appleby’s Emotionless primed to take on three Guineas winners in the St James’s Palace Stakes.
Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid’s impressive Irish 2000 Guineas winner Awtaad will line up alongside Galileo Gold, the winner of the English 2000 Guineas, and both have it all to do if they are to deny The Gurkha, the easy winner of the French 2000 Guineas for Aidan O’Brien.
With a line-up such as that, Day 1 will be no damp squib.
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