ROYAL ASCOT, ENGLAND // Dartmouth survived a stewards’ enquiry following the Hardwicke Stakes before The Queen’s horse was awarded the Group 2 race at Royal Ascot on Saturday.
Ridden by Olivier Peslier, Dartmouth came together with a hanging Highland Reel and Seamie Heffernan in the final 250 metres, but there was little to prevent The Queen securing a 23rd victory at her meeting.
Dartmouth was Sir Michael Stoute’s 10th winner of the race and took his tally to a leading 75 winners in total, equal with the late Sir Henry Cecil.
Stoute trained Estimate, who won The Queen the Queen’s Vase in 2012 and the Gold Cup in 2013, and knows well what the success meant to his prominent owner.
“The Queen loves a winner anywhere but particularly here, of course,” Stoute said. “I wasn’t nervous at all during the stewards’ enquiry. I don’t think The Queen was either. I saw the replay and I couldn’t see anything happen.
“The Queen was beaming after the result of the enquiry was announced. She just loves the game really. It made me realise just how much she knows about the game, she’s very knowledgeable. It’s a big thrill to equal Sir Henry’s record. It’s very poignant; 75 Royal Ascot winners is a great mark to reach and I hope it doesn’t stop there.”
Stoute was non-committal about the prospects of Dartmouth returning here next month for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, a race that Highland Reel could contest.
It was the first run in Britain in seven starts for the globe-trotting Highland Reel, who had finished fourth to Postponed in the Dubai Sheema Classic in March before finishing eighth to Werther in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup in Hong Kong.
A week after Highland Reel’s run at Sha Tin, Gold Fun had finished fourth in the Group 1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize at the same course and the Hong Kong raider was just edged out by Twilight Son in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes.
Gold Fun was one of four international challengers in the 1,200-metre contest. Last year’s US winner Undrafted was sixth, Holler was seventh for Godolphin Australia and Sign Of Blessing crossed the Channel from France to finish third.
However, none had the determination of Twilight Son, who stuck his neck out at the line to deny Gold-Fun by a quarter of a length, nor a jockey with the will to win displayed by Ryan Moore.
It was a third success on the day for Moore, who also rode Sir Isaac Newton to land the Wolferton Handicap and Churchill to win the Chesham Stakes and took his tally for the week to six.
Five of Moore’s winners were provided by Aidan O’Brien, who was top trainer with seven victories, and was the sixth time in the last seven years he had topped the jockeys’ standings.
Moore is famously curt with the media when probed about anything other than his horses, and when asked about how he felt to ride a three-timer on the final day of the royal meeting he replied: “It would mean more had I won four.”
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