Royal Ascot 2022: Our awards of the week including best horse, trainer, jockey, stallion and future star

Horse of the Week… NATURE STRIP 🏆

For this year’s wow moment look no further than the third race. Yes, we had Baaeed before that and yes, we had Inspiral showing her class on day four. But for sheer brilliance and dominance you can’t beat what NATURE STRIP did in the King’s Stand.

It’s 10 years since the last Australian sprint winner at Royal Ascot, Black Caviar’s 2012 win in the Jubilee a wow moment of a different kind. She ended an era kicked off by Choisir in 2003, but Nature Strip has ended that hiatus and let’s hope he’s the start of a new wave of daring antipodean travellers to storm this meeting.

We’ve long suspected our sprinters weren’t in the class of the best from Down Under, especially since Battaash and Blue Point were retired, and here was the indisputable evidence as Nature Strip swaggered to a decisive four-and-a-half length blitz over Twilight Calls et al.

Irad Ortiz might’ve butchered Golden Pal’s chance at the start, but it’s hard to imagine even the best of that American-trained speedball living with Nature Strip, who simply coasted to a ninth top-level success for star Sydney-based trainer Chris Waller. Fair dinkum.

Ride of the Week… SHANE CROSSE on State Of Rest 🏆

The Prince of Wales’s Stakes had the look of a tactical race beforehand. None of the five participants were confirmed front runners and so the opportunity was there for intuition from someone in the saddle.

Christian Demuro passed up the chance on Japanese Derby and Sheema Classic winner, Shahryar, a horse blessed with stamina. That was a mistake and he raced too keenly to do himself justice.

Demuro’s error paled into insignificance compared to Frankie Dettori’s own faux pas, his clumsy attempt at removing Lord North’s blindfold in the stalls resulting in him losing many lengths at the start. Game over.

At this point SHANE CROSSE was already out in front dictating matters on State Of Rest, and he slowly turned the screw, making the most of his positional advantage to beat the favourite Bay Bridge, who wasn’t seen to best effect off a moderate gallop.

A sweet victory for Crosse then, as he had received plenty of criticism for giving State Of Rest too much to do in the Tattersalls Gold Cup. If he wasn’t alert that day at the Curragh, though, he very much righted those wrongs here.

Jockey of the Week… RYAN MOORE 🏆

It would take a harsh critic to blame RYAN MOORE for Bay Bridge’s defeat in the Prince Of Wales’ Stakes. If he could ride the same race again I’m sure he’d be more aggressive on him earlier, but that’s different to making an error and those were few and far between once again from Moore this meeting.

The week didn’t start so rosy, with 12 successive defeats including four seconds, the most galling that Bay Bridge reverse, but it was 13th time lucky with Little Big Bear in the Windsor Castle, Moore’s final ride on day two, that neck verdict over Rocket Rodney opening the floodgates somewhat.

Day three saw Moore ride a double, a sumptuous ride on Kyprios in the Gold Cup, complete with a holding-Frankie-in moment, saw him adapt to the situation, rushing his mount up earlier than he’d like because of the moderate pace – and doing so on the outside of the pack where he didn’t really want to be. In the very next contest he was at it again, on the talented but tricky Thesis in the Britannia, making his move at just the right time in a race he’d told connections to go for. He got the better of Dettori again, this time by a head, with the Queen’s Saga running on just too late.

Friday brought another double, this time both winners for Aidan O’Brien, on Meditate and Changingoftheguard, the latter winning the King Edward VII Stakes thanks in part to Grand Alliance’s waywardness, but also because he was kept straight and true by Moore on the fence.

Saturday Moore took his tally to seven for the week after wins on Broome and Rohaan, both great rides, ensuring he was leading jockey at the meeting, again, for a ninth time, riding out of his skin. His every thought will be with his brother, Josh, who continues to be hospitalised from a horror fall at Haydock in February, but that anguish is not affecting his performance one jot. He was the clear standout rider of the meeting.

Trainer of the Week… JANE CHAPPLE-HYAM 🏆

Special mentions go to Aidan O’Brien, who emerged with five winners from what looked a weaker-looking Royal Ascot squad on paper, and Richard Fahey, who landed a significant double despite the adversity of ruling out his best two-year-old at the eleventh hour.

But pound-for-pound it’s hard to argue with the astonishing week of JANE CHAPPLE-HYAM. On the back of landing her first Group One success with Saffron Beach last year, that same horse underlined her status as a top-notcher with a smooth victory in the Group 2 Duke Of Cambridge Stakes despite saddling a penalty on the second day.

Just over half an hour later Chapple-Hyam’s second runner of the meeting, Intellogent, looked on the verge of disgracing himself at the start. He was unruly and didn’t want to go in the stalls, but he behaved himself in the race alright, throwing down a stern challenge down the centre of the track only for the flying grey Dark Shift to overhaul him in the final half furlong.

Sent off at 40/1, that would’ve been a shock, but Chapple-Hyam still had a slimline one of those up her sleeve with Claymore, her final runner of the meeting, who bounced back from finishing last in the French 2000 Guineas to sink the Queen’s odds-on favourite Reach For The Moon in the Hampton Court. Two winners and a 40/1 second from three goes? J C-H deserves the gong.

Bounce back of the Week… PERFECT POWER 🏆

Claymore’s bouncebackability was good, but I always think it’s easier to climb off the canvas going up in trip, especially when you’re bred for it, and so this award goes to PERFECT POWER, who dropped back to six furlongs from a mile to win the Commonwealth Cup in fantastic style.

Richard Fahey was fully entitled to go for the 2000 Guineas with this Ardad colt after his excellent reappearance win in the Greenham over seven furlongs, but he didn’t quite stretch to the Classic distance when trailing home Coroebus by over six lengths at Newmarket.

Just 48 days after his HQ reverse he was asked to see off a posse of potential superstar sprinters on the Ascot heath, but if there’s a three-year-old capable of seeing off the older brigade in the July Cup on this evidence it’s Perfect Power himself.

He made his move two furlongs out, led well inside the final furlong and pulled away for a length and a quarter verdict, firmly shaping as though he’ll be adding to his G1 tally in the coming weeks and months.

A six-furlong horse who gets seven, and one who goes on more testing ground, autumn prizes like the Haydock Sprint Cup and British Champions Sprint look made for him, but he’ll have a fine chance of nabbing prizes like the July Cup and Prix Maurice de Gheest first. The Perfect bounce back.

Controversy of the Week… THE NORFOLK STEWARDS 🏆

“The fouler gets the benefit of the doubt in racing, I’m not sure that’s right,” so said Ruby Walsh on ITV.

“It’s like committing a professional foul,” so said Kevin Blake on Sky Sports Racing.

Things got heated on both channels as pundits and presenters discussed The Ridler’s 50/1 win in the Norfolk Stakes, with Head of Stewarding at the BHA, Shaun Parker, batting away Oli Bell’s yorkers with the ITV man pressing him to distinguish between careless and dangerous.

Steve Cauthen says the winner would’ve been chucked out in the United States but that he likes our rules, particularly the ‘judgement of whether the interferer was the best horse anyway’ element.

I don’t think anyone would doubt that The Ridler was the best horse in the Norfolk. And nobody should doubt that the right decision wasn’t made when the stewards’ looked up the current rulebook.

But when those rules are so ambiguous, failing to deter wipe-outs like this, it’s a disaster waiting to happen.

Graham Cunningham summed the whole situation up much more neatly than I ever could in his piece ‘Time to clean up Gotham after The Ridler’s dramatic Norfolk heist’ on these very pages, but in case you missed it I’ll point you to his closing paragraph:

“And inserting a clause in the careless riding rules that states: ‘The Stewards reserve the right to demote or disqualify any horse whose rider puts the safety of other horses and riders in serious jeopardy’ would be a huge move in the right direction both for the welfare of combatants and the interests of owners, trainers, fans and punters.”

It’s no good just saying it’s unsatisfactory. It’s time for a change and if such a simple tweak to the BHA rules can give more power to the stewards, prompting them to take away races from serious offenders instead of handing out ineffective jockey bans, it can only be a positive move.

Stallion of the Week… DUBAWI 🏆

Five winners during the week from DUBAWI progeny make him the undisputed top stallion at Royal Ascot 2022 but his success was more than just a numbers game.

Saturday sealed matters with a remarkable one-two in the Group One Platinum Jubilee over six furlongs, where Naval Crown edged out stablemate Creative Force, proving in style that Dubawi can breed speed granted the right mare.

Better known for his sons and daughters exploits over further, Coroebus supplemented his 2000 Guineas success in the St James’s Palace Stakes over a mile, Dubai Future landed the Listed Wolferton Stakes over 10 furlongs and Eldar Eldarov got his head in front in the Queen’s Vase over 1m6f.

There was a handicap winner, too, in the shape of Secret State in the King George V Stakes, and all this was achieved despite his banker of the week, the odds-on Alfred Munnings in the Chesham Stakes, getting turned over on the final day.

Future star of the Week… DRAMATISED 🏆

Two juvenile wins apiece this week for Aidan O’Brien and Karl Burke, with the latter winning the Chesham Stakes with an unraced horse in 40/1 chance Holloway Boy - despite the former having the odds-on favourite in Alfred Munnings.

While that was a surprise, DRAMATISED’s Queen Mary success was anything but, the Showcasing filly sent off the 5/2 favourite on the back of a decisive win at Newmarket’s Guineas Festival on her racecourse debut.

There were some other well-touted fillies in the Queen Mary, particularly the third and fourth home, Maria Branwell and Love Reigns, who were beaten three lengths by Burke’s flying machine.

Burke is a fine trainer of two-year-olds, one of the best, as he’s shown this week, but he campaigned another daughter of Showcasing, Quiet Reflection, to win a couple of Group Ones at three, and, like her, Dramatised looks a sprinter all over. She looks to have the tools to go to the very top.

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