by TDN Europe
It was a day for longshots at Royal Ascot on Friday, as Harry Eustace secured another Group 1 victory with Time for Sandals in the Commonwealth Cup, while Cercene, a daughter of Australia, captured the G1 Coronation Stakes.
Harry Eustace strikes again in the G1 Commonwealth Cup
From four runners at this year's Royal Ascot, Harry Eustace now boasts a pair of Group 1 winners as the filly Time For Sandals (Ire) (Sands Of Mali {Fr}) followed on from stablemate Docklands in Friday's G1 Commonwealth Cup.
“It's been extraordinary–it's all down the team at home and all the little things they do, I can't thank them enough,” commented Eustace, in the remarkable position of greeting a second Group 1 winner at the meeting just three days after the yard's momentous Queen Anne triumph.
“It went really smoothly–the most concerning part was the draw but it's the first time she's had a fast horse to follow and we were very confident we hadn't seen the best of her.”
Harry's father James, who had captured the 1998 Royal Hunt Cup here with Refuse To Lose, was on hand to witness the week of weeks for his son. “It is like magic, like a dream–it has been absolutely superb,” he said. The two boys [Harry and David] are competitive and David obviously did really well in Australia, so he now has to emulate his uncle, who did train a Royal Ascot winner from Hong Kong in Cape Of Good Hope and Harry has to try and win a Melbourne Cup!”
Time For Sandals becomes the first Group 1, the second Group and fourth black-type winner for Ballyhane's second-crop sire Sands Of Mali, whose finest hour came when beating his elders over this course and distance in the G1 British Champions Sprint Stakes four months after he had been runner-up in this contest.
Daughter of Australia wins G1 Coronation Stakes
Last seen running third behind the absent Lake Victoria in the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas, Shane Stafford's €50,000 Tattersalls Ireland yearling Cercene (Ire) (Australia {GB}) stepped forward in ultra-game fashion to become the longest-priced winner of Royal Ascot's G1 Coronation Stakes.
“She's not big, but she's very tough,” commented winning jockey Gary Carroll.
Trainer Joseph Murphy, celebrating his first success at the highest level, commented, “This is 50 years of work by the family, going from a small yard, switching from National Hunt to Flat, and buying horses and believing that they are going to be good. It is a lifetime's ambition to have a Group 1 winner. We have been second and third in Group 1s, so we've been knocking on the door, but didn't open it. Today, we opened it."
"Cercene is by Australia, a sire I love, and her half-brother won the Britannia, so the pedigree was there. If she was an inch bigger, I wouldn't have her. Cercene travelled well and Gary gave her a great ride. We were thinking, being by Australia, that she would stay well. She was headed and came back again. She waited for something to head her, but she is very tough and a dream to train.”
Cercene becomes the seventh Group 1 scorer for her sire, Australia, and the second this season following the exploits of Lambourn in the G1 Derby.
Amiloc takes G2 King Edward VII Stakes
Atoning for the eclipse of the Aykroyds' Derby hope Pride Of Arras, their other prized homebred Amiloc (GB) (Postponed [Ire}) maintained his unbeaten sequence in Friday's G2 King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Sent off the 11-8 favourite for the mile-and-a-half “Ascot Derby”, the Ralph Beckett-trained Listed Cocked Hat Stakes winner followed Ballydoyle's Galveston (GB) (Frankel {GB}) before taking over two out and asserting for a 3/4-of-a-length verdict under Rossa Ryan.
Zahrann (Ire) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) closed to be second, two lengths ahead of the tiring Galveston.
Starman filly too good in the G3 Albany
Tony Bloom and Ian McAleavy's once-raced Carlisle maiden winner Venetian Sun (Ire) (Starman [GB}) fulfilled the role of spoiler with aplomb and the Karl Burke trainee prevented a Ballydoyle clean sweep of Royal Ascot's juvenile pattern races with a dominant victory in Friday's G3 Albany Stakes.
Winning part-owner Tony Bloom, supremo of Premier League soccer club Brighton & Hove Albion, commented, “We were concerned about the [one] draw, but Karl Burke didn't stop telling us how good a horse Venetian Sun is. She has run unbelievably to win in this field at Royal Ascot."
"Karl has huge belief in her and her work at home has been outstanding in the last six weeks, so we came here with confidence. Looking at her run today, I am confident she can go further and we are looking ahead to next season and the [G1] 1000 Guineas.”
