Saturday racing preview: Alex Hammond tips

I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a Royal Ascot more than this year’s meeting. Summer finally arrived and the mood was good. The racecourse produced a fair flat racing surface and the action on each of the five days was top notch.

There are too many notable performances to list but those that stood out for me were Rosallion in the St. James’s Palace Stakes. Richard Hannon’s faith in this colt has stood firm and in adding that Group One to his Irish 2000 Guineas victory we saw what his trainer sees every day. It was exciting to see the Aussie mare Asfoora come over and blitz the field in the King Charles III Stakes on day one too. She is an absolute tank of a horse and the international contingent always add intrigue to the meeting. Congratulations to her connections for being bold.

Auguste Rodin is an enigma, but he put his best foot forward to win the Group One Prince of Wales’s Stakes for the all-conquering team of Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore. That put his absolute shocker in last years King George to bed and he’s now the winner of six Group One contests. International targets loom for this son of Japanese stallion sensation, Deep Impact. The win of Wild Tiger in the Royal Hunt Cup was a noisy victory for the Sky Sports Racing team with a unanimous vote in his favour before the race from the presentation squad. Saeed Bin Suroor may not get the numbers nowadays but he’s a fantastic target trainer and that win was his third in the devilishly difficult handicap.

It was a good week for the northern trainers too and Karl Burke and Ed Bethell celebrated winners on the Thursday. Wathnan Racing are becoming a rising force in British racing and English Oak stood out as one to follow in the future after his win in the Buckingham Palace Stakes on his first start for his new big spending owners.

Things ramped up on the Friday with some sensational performances. None more so than Calandagan who romped home in the King Edward VII Stakes for French trainer Francis-Henri Graffard under jockey Stephane Pasquier and owner/breeder The Aga Khan. He’s a gelding which limits some of his options, but he looked formidable when stretching six lengths clear of his nearest opponent.

Earlier on that afternoon Fairy Godmother had blown us away with her erratic passage in winning the Albany Stakes. So nearly a race that got away but ended up as a visually spectacular performance for Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore. Another of the northern trainers was on the scoresheet in the Commonwealth Cup as Kevin Ryan’s decision to switch Inisherin to sprinting paid dividends.

Aidan O’Brien unleashed another 1000 Guineas contender in the Chesham Stakes. Bedtime Story took on the boys in this seven furlong listed race and she annihilated them to win by nine-and-a-half lengths. The day was topped off by Haatem’s popular win in the Jersey Stakes with the colt now sporting the Wathnan Racing silks. Kikkuli finished second, and he’s one to watch after a gallant display that saw him nose in front, before Haatem fought back to win by a short head.

It was also exciting to see Billy Loughnane ride his first Royal Ascot winners. We are all aware that he’s a huge talent, but he also has an engaging and endearing personality and star quality like that comes along once in a blue moon. There was no Frankie on the track at Ascot, but the next generation is already proving we have plenty to look forward to. What a week.

After a bit of R&R after Ascot, I’m looking forward to Newcastle’s Northumberland Plate meeting, which got underway on Thursday. The feature handicap on Saturday has attracted a maximum field of 20 and with Sky Bet going 5/1 the field and paying seven places there are options, and hopefully some value to be found.

Sir Mark Prescott ended a long wait for another Royal Ascot winner last week with Pledgeofalliegence in the Ascot Stakes and his Trooper Bisdee bids to win another staying prize for the popular trainer. Hollie Doyle has been booked to ride the 5/1 favourite who has just 8 stone 6 lbs to carry in the two-miler and she’ll be hoping to emulate her win two years ago on Trueshan, who carried over two stone more than her ride this year.

Trooper Bisdee has been almost unstoppable since stepping up to this trip and further, with four wins from five starts. He carries a penalty for winning easily at Pontefract on Sunday. Sir Mark also saddles True Legend, the mount of Cieren Fallon.

Andrew Balding has a couple of rolls of the dice with Grand Providence and Spirit Mixer, the latter being a horse I’ve followed over a cliff and is 25/1 to win this. It’s the former under David Probert that holds the strongest claim for the trainer here though after a good effort, meeting trouble in the Chester Cup behind the reopposing Zoffee last time out. She’s already a winner on an artificial surface at Kempton and she can go well at 8/1.

It was great to see Callum Shepherd ride a Royal Ascot winner after being jocked off Ambiente Friendly before his second placed effort in the Derby and Callum will wear those yellow Gredley silks once again on Too Friendly in Saturday’s big race at Newcastle.

The horse is trained by James Owen who is making a name for himself since taking out his licence and Callum will be getting down to his minimum riding weight to get on board this horse. He caught the eye when finishing an unlucky second at Newmarket on his penultimate start, albeit I don’t he’d have won regardless, and has subsequently been beaten at Hamilton. He won over two miles at Kempton in March, and it could be that the step back up to this trip sees him run into one of those seven places. He’s 20/1 with Sky Bet.

I’ll be having Too Friendly and Spirit Mixer (naturally!) on my side to run into a place.

Away from the Jenningsbet Northumberland Plate I like the look of the William Haggas trained Montassib (another cliff horse) in the Jenningsbet Nun Street Newcastle Open Now Chipchase Stakes. He’s a 5/1 shot behind Kinross and Spycatcher to win this group 3. He’s really found his sprinting stride having been dropped down to six furlongs for the first time in the Ayr Gold Cup last September and I hope he can bounce back from his latest defeat at York.

Away from Newcastle Ambiente Friendly has a favourites chance in Sunday’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby. He travelled supremely well in the Derby at Epsom and was just outpointed by City Of Troy. It would be a fabulous result for my friend and colleague Freddy Tylicki who bought this horse for The Gredley Family for 80,000 guineas at the Breeze Up Sales in April of last year. To have a horse that cost less than six figures already placed in a classic is phenomenal but to win one would be genius. I’ll be cheering him home at the Curragh.

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