Royal Ascot 2020 | Oisin Murphy: Going for Gold

It was both a thrill and a great relief to get on the scoresheet aboard Sir Busker at Royal Ascot on Wednesday in the day's opener, the Silver Hunt Cup.

His trainer William Knight had him in terrific shape and he gave me a great feel throughout the race. He travelled super and found plenty when I asked him to, I was absolutely delighted with him and thrilled to get a winner at this prestigious meeting.

Hopefully I'll get another on Thursday as I do have some excellent chances...

Day Three Rides

Golden Gates Handicap (13.15) – Tritonic

Tritonic runs in the Golden Gates Handicap and he has a great chance. I think you can ignore his run at the end of last year, it was the end of a long season and he did nothing else wrong throughout the year. He’s bred to be a much better horse at three than he was at two and he still managed to win two nice races as a juvenile, where the form worked out pretty well. He’s exciting. I’m sure he’ll be one of the fancied horses but he deserves to be.

Jersey Stakes (14.25) – Above

Above has been training really well. On ratings he has a bit to do, but Archie Watson’s been super thrilled with him. It’s a fact-finding mission, as we don’t know how good he really is, but we’ll find out on Thursday.

Chesham Stakes (15.00) – Bright Devil

I love this horse, he’s one of my leading rides of the week. He’s a very straightforward horse and he’ll definitely stay seven furlongs, he’s got a great mind. It’s a small-field Chesham with only eight rivals and he deserves to be up there disputing favouritism. It’s a wonderful opportunity, he’s a horse with a bright future.

Gold Cup (15.35) – Technician

I’ve seen plenty of this horse’s gallops recently and he seems in really good form. I’d love it to be slower than good ground, as that would really suit him and there are some thundery showers forecast in the days leading up to the Gold Cup. With his pedigree you’d have to think he’ll have improved from three to four and he went from strength to strength last year, culminating in that Group One Prix Royal-Oak success at Longchamp, form that has been franked by the runner-up, Call The Wind. As for how we beat Stradivarius, I think I’ll just ride my own race. Technician is a strong stayer and I’m confident 2m4f is within his compass – he got every yard of two miles on heavy ground at a stiff track in Longchamp. It’s just great to be in there with a chance, there’s a lot of prestige to the Ascot Gold Cup.

Britannia Stakes Handicap (16.10) – Enemy

He’s got a mark of 89 and our feeling is he could be nicely handicapped, he’s certainly very progressive. Obviously he was beaten at Yarmouth but we were travelling so well and I got upsides the leader, but he just didn’t quicken when I said go. I think a faster run race over an extra furlong on a stiff track will suit him well and hopefully this can be a stepping stone to bigger handicaps or even better races later on.

Sandringham Stakes Handicap (16.40) – Alabama Whitman

She recorded a huge figure when placed at Ascot in last year’s Albany Stakes as a two-year-old. We haven’t seen her this year but Richard Spencer’s horses have been in good shape. She’s a tough and hardy little thing and you never know in the Sandringham, but she gets in off a nice weight so we’ll see what happens.

More from Oisin Murphy

• Royal Ascot: Day two rides
• Royal Ascot: Day one rides
• Column Seven: Kameko all class
• Column Six: A Classic weekend
• Column Five: Racing resumption
• Column Four: Sticky situations
• Column Three: Oisin Murphy's favourite horses
• Column Two: Oisin Murphy's 2020 vision
• Column One: Getting to know Oisin Murphy

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