TUESDAY 2.30pm
G1 Queen Anne Stakes
1m
DAMYSUS
5th
What the jockeys said
Race report
They went off fast and barely relented, setting the race up perfectly for a coldly-ridden closer. Our horse Damysus moved encouraging close to the front two furlongs out but his effort never looked likely to succeed. He finished an honourable fifth – beating three G1-winning milers including Notable Speech. He also finished a lot closer to More Thunder and Zeus Olympios than he had last time out in the Lockinge. For all that he has a good prize at this distance in him, he looks likely to have more to offer over somewhat further: his best successes have come at 9f, while 10f and possibly beyond may be in his compass in the future.
The race was won by 50-1 rank outsider Ten Bob Tony – as white-bedaubed as Damysus – who raced well off the hot early tempo. His sire, Night Of Thunder went on to notch up a G1 double with Bow Echo in the St James’s Palace Stakes.
FULL RACE REPLAY
Preview
His father won it – Frankel, completely brilliantly in one of the most thrilling performances ever put up at the Royal meeting or, indeed, anywhere. Can Damysus possibly follow in such illustrious hoofprints?
This is Royal Ascot’s signature one-mile event for older horses, first run in 1840 and commemorating the monarch who founded the racecourse some 130 years before that. The striking Damysus – his face, legs and belly daubed with white – comes here with an equally flashy reputation established in races over one-eighth of a mile further, but having failed to shine quite so brightly in his first assignment against G1 milers last month. Don’t put it past him to have learned from that experience.
To Newmarket, that wind-strewn landscape where so many Royal Ascot dreams begin. And to Clarehaven Stables, to be precise, where no fewer than four Wathnan Royal Ascot winners were trained. Could there be more this week…?
“If he were a schoolboy, he’d be at the front of the class with his arm in the air, getting everything right.”
Co-trainer Thady Gosden
