Racing
Michael Duffy
ROYAL Ascot is many things to many people. If you’re a dolly bird you’re probably salivating at the thought of next week’s showcase festival of flat racing. Right now you’re probably biding your time in some salubrious boutique, sitting pretty with the Racing Post in one hand and the The Mayo News in the other.
Your personal stylist is casting her eye on the nearby rails, undecided. Mulranny Mango or Tourmakeady Turquoise? It’s not easy. Besides, it’s getting so difficult to second-guess the Queen these days.
For your typical racing fan, the quandaries are far starker, and evidently more expensive. Going through the card at Portman Park is easier than solving the Wokingham Stakes cavalry charge, a race that can often cost more than a suit of Louis Copeland’s finest clobber. And then there’s the top hat.
Next week’s Royal Ascot meeting will be an entirely different vibe to the frenzy of Cheltenham and the charm of Aintree, but no matter what your bent is – be it National Hunt, Flat or flappers – it will be a week to savour.
Where else in the world next week would you get the 2,000 Guineas winner Cockney Rebel, the (unlucky) third Dutch Art; the 1,000 Guineas heroine Finsceal Beo and her French rival Darjina; last year’s Irish Derby winner Dylan Thomas and the world’s top stayer, Yeats? Throw in the best of the two-year-olds seen so far – including our ‘one for the notebook’ entrant, Henrythenavigator – and we have the best few days of flat racing of the season.
And that roll-call doesn’t even include the great George Washington. The vagaries of nature mean that last year’s star-turn is back from the stud-farm to charm us with his good looks, his almost human quirks and, of course, that devastating dash.
The physical challenge in getting George Washington ready for Ascot’s Queen Anne Stakes on Tuesday won’t keep trainer Aidan O’Brien awake at night – it’s the mental one that promises to test his powers.
Bear in mind here is a horse with a mind of his own, a steely determination to do what he wants, when he wants. Minutes after winning last year’s Guineas at Newmarket, for example, George Washington was determined not to go into the winner’s enclosure.
Far too naff for this regally bred half-brother to Grandera. In the end Kieren Fallon had to slip into reverse, a quick look in the mirrors, and back him in. Not quite Hollywood.
At the end of a spectacular three year-old campaign where he was crowned the best miler of his age-group, George got his just rewards – a lifetime sentence of hard labour at stud, servicing the finest mares in the world. But then nature bit back.
Reports that he could dance to the Village People’s YMCA appear unfounded but, as a spokesman put it, there were issues with George Washington’s fertility. With his stud career at an end, at least temporarily, George had to pack his bags, and he arrived back at Ballydoyle this spring in a breathtaking ‘swap deal’ with Holy Roman Emperor.
Since then O’Brien had faced the unenviable task of reprogramming the miler, of teaching him that he’s a racehorse once more and not a sex machine. So, as it’s been for most of his career, all eyes will again be on George Washington at Ascot next week. For what’s it’s worth at this stage, I think he will win with perhaps top filly Red Evie the main danger. My picks for the other two Group Ones on day one are Dandy Man for the King’s Stand and Cockney Rebel to emulate Rock of Gibraltar take the St James’ Palace Stakes. Now there’s a nice treble to get the week off to the perfect start.
