Alex Hammond Northumberland Plate tip and Royal Ascot reflections

By Alex Hammond

Horse Racing

Fri June 30, 2023 · 1y ago

Royal Ascot was a blast.

It’s the toughest week of the year for most of the people working at the meeting, but the best. It’s an incredible honour to be involved with such an iconic event from one of the best seats in the house. The Royal meeting is completely unique, and I find that whatever else is happening in the world over those five days, it completely passes me by. More than ever this year I felt immensely lucky to be involved with the event for our brilliant team at Sky Sports Racing. I hope you enjoyed the coverage too.

There were many special moments over the five days, but a few stood out. I’m still scratching my head at the performance of Shaquille in Friday’s Commonwealth Cup.

How on earth did he win in such good style having almost taken Oisin Murphy’s head off as the stalls opened?! He lost lengths at the start, had the audacity to pull the former champion jockey’s arms out at halfway, and beat Little Big Bear with relative ease. Hats off to Julie Camacho, Steve Brown, and their team for managing his exuberance so well and training him to perfection. It’s exciting to imagine where his journey takes him from here, particularly if they can iron out some of those quirks. It’s vindication for Camacho when she decided to do a U-turn on her decision to retire from training over twenty years ago when she was light on numbers. Husband Steve Brown has a sporting pedigree too and used to manage Pickering Town FC around that same time, and the duo are now a formidable team at their North Yorkshire stables.

As I write I’m hearing the news that Frankie Dettori has lost his appeal against the nine-day ban he was handed for his ride on Saga in the Wolferton at Royal Ascot that will rule him out of the Eclipse and the ride on Emily Upjohn. What a blow.

There are differing views about whether the stewards got that right, and I must sit on the fence as we don’t have access to all the camera angles afforded to the officials. There is also condemnation of his eight day suspension for his use of the whip on Inspiral in the Queen Anne Stakes. He went one over the maximum level of six, and as it was in a high-class race the penalty was doubled. That rules Dettori out of the July Cup, the only Group 1 in Britain to elude him. That rubs salt into the wound, but he broke the rules and as we were watching the race live, it was apparent he had fallen foul of them. He would have ridden Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes 7th Kinross at Newmarket, who will now be a plum spare ride for someone. He’s 7/1 with Sky Bet for the Newmarket contest with Shaquille 9/4 favourite.

Other than that, it was a wonderful week for Frankie, and I was thrilled to see him win three races. The ride he gave Courage Mon Ami in the Gold Cup was Dettori at his best and he added stardust to an already sparkling meeting. I loved his comment on twitter in response to a post from the trade paper, asking followers to describe Dettori in one word. “Knackered” was his amusing response.

It's hard to narrow down highlights from a week like Royal Ascot, but I must give mention to Hollie Doyle who became the first female rider to win a Group 1 at the fixture, courtesy of her victory on Bradsell in the King’s Stand Stakes. She went home with three winners at the end of the week and subsequently added another record to her outstanding achievements when winning the Carlisle Bell on Mostawaa. That win means she has now ridden a winner at every flat track in Britain. We are incredibly lucky to have her.

Empire to strike back in the Plate

This weekend we are off to Newcastle for the JenningsBet Northumberland Plate, which was won by Hollie Doyle on Trueshan last year. One non-runner at the time of writing leaves nineteen horses to go to post for this two-mile handicap. Sadly, that absentee is Second Slip, who would have had a chance, but sadly is lame.

The Sky Bet market is headed by 9/2 shot Post Impressionist, for Royal Ascot-winning trainer William Haggas and jockey Tom Marquand, who was on board Desert Hero for HM The King for that historic victory.

This horse has improver stamped all over him, but I think with Sky Bet paying seven places we can look for some each-way value.

Michael Bell has won this before and has snapped up Billy Loughnane to ride Adjuvant. Billy has a 36% strike-rate at Newcastle and the 3lbs claim is unbelievable value. At 13/2 he may not appeal either. Speaking of apprentice’s value for their claim, Harry Davies still claims 3lb and he rides one of Andrew Balding’s two runners. Aztec Empire may be 25/1, but it wouldn’t be a bolt out of the blue for him to finish in one of those seven places. He missed the Chester Cup due to the testing ground and prior to that had run a modest race on soft ground at Newbury. However, prior to that he was in good form on the all-weather and a return to an artificial surface will suit this relatively unexposed four-year-old. He’s drawn wide but two of the last three winners have been posted out wide, so I’m not going to be put off by that. He’s a promising young stayer who should still be on the upgrade.

Sunday’s Dubai Duty Free is all about Derby winner Auguste Rodin, who is 1/3 favourite with Sky Bet to go with his Epsom win.

The Irish classic doesn’t look to be extremely competitive on paper, but what happens after the race at the Curragh is when things get exciting. Can you envisage a King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Qipco Stakes at Ascot next month with Auguste Rodin, Emily Upjohn, Pyledriver, Soul Sister, Hukum, King Of Steel, Adayar and Desert Crown, amongst others? Ascot continues to serve up some summer treats.

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