REEL TO CATCH BIG PRIZE: SHAMROCK stays loyal with Aidan O’Brien despite a poor day at the office on Tuesday.
A bitterly disappointing performance from Churchill yesterday who ran flat.
Trainer Aidan O’Brien said after the race: “He should like fast ground really. It is a very hot day and maybe the heat and change didn’t help. He just didn’t pick up for some reason. We don’t know the reason but we will hopefully know sometime.”
It needed Willie Mullins to come to the rescue on the opening day – Thomas Hobson ran out an easy winner of the Ascot Stakes under Ryan Moore to give Ireland their opening winner at this year’s meeting.
Today looks tough for Ireland. Especially if Wesley Ward’s Happy Like A Fool proves the speed machine her price indicates she might be in the Queen Mary Stakes at 3.05pm.
The Ger Lyons trained Treasuring won well at Navan but might well be up against something special in Happy Like A Fool who was mentioned very favourably by Ward in a TV interview yesterday.
I was concerned with the way Aidan’s horses performed yesterday but there’s no doubting Highland Reel has the best chance of an Irish success today in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at 4.20pm.
He categorically loves it fast – it was firm when he won the Longine Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita last year and comes into this on the back of a win in the Coronation Cup at Epsom over 1m 4f.
He comes into this joint top on the official ratings with Jack Hobbs whose four career wins have not come on anything faster than good and hasn’t been seen since winning the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan in March.
More of a threat is DAQMAN’s NAP Ulysses who has winning form on good to firm – comes into this on the back of a win at Sandown and strikes me as the type to find further improvement.
SHAMROCK’S BETS:
NAP: Highland Reel (4.20 Royal Ascot)
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