Anyone Fancy a Royal Ascot Thread?

[CaveMum]

Royal Ascot starts on Tuesday, through till Saturday.

Whilst no attendance has been confirmed yet the King is expected to be present on at least one day and other Royals will also be on course.

I get the official Ascot emails at work, which include the carriage list, every day so am happy to put that up here after midday each day if anyone is interested.

Thanks CaveMum

I'm going to settle in for an afternoon of viewing.

Is Desert Hero likely to go to stud after his racing career is over? So lovely to keep that legacy from The Queen going. Great name too.

I suppose there must be some excellently named racehorses that never won anything but I think of great racehorses that I can remember there seems to be a happy alignment of great name for a great horse.

I only recently discovered that Brigadier Gerard was a hero in an novel by Conan Doyle as well as a great racehorse who presumably was named after the protagonist in the book. I'm old enough to remember the excitement around Brigadier Gerard's exploits on the racecourse.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigadier_Gerard

Thought I’d have a Google @Serenster a d it turns out she is a big racing fan and owns a horse which she entered in the NationalSee here

I suppose there must be some excellently named racehorses that never won anything but I think of great racehorses that I can remember there seems to be a happy alignment of great name for a great horse.

I particularly enjoyed watching the excellently named Courage Mon Ami come from literally last in the field to win yesterday’s Gold Cup, fighting and winning a neck and neck battle for the line all the way up the home straight. Frankie Dettori wasn’t going to give up and the horse showed every quality of his name 😀

Also, your post reminded me of this classic race…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BVMY-VX7NyA

OMG I haven't laughed so much all year, I am literally crying. Thank you for that @Serenster

I wonder if "My Wife knows Everything" and "The Wife doesn't know" had the same breeder/sire/dam/owner.

Too funny.

I do recall a horse called Veleader and I was genuinely confused by commentary saying "And Veleader brings up the rear".
Alas he didn't live up to the clever name as far as I know.

@Serenster no, to be blunt Desert Hero isn’t a good enough racehorse to warrant a place at stud. He has no, what is known as “black type” which means he has never won a top class race. You need one of two things to go to stud - a top race record or a top pedigree and while he is decent neither his pedigree or race record are anywhere near good enough. Only a dozen or so colts go to stud each year in Britain and the odds are that the vast majority of them will turn out to be useless!

As for names, there are plenty of good ones out there that never win, or are mediocre at best. There are very tight rules around naming racehorses but I always say no truly great horse has ever had a “bad” name.

A personal favourite of many in the industry, and one that we’ve no idea how it got last the regulators was Gee Spot! She was impeccably named, her father being Pursuit of Love and her mother My Discovery!

I’m not old enough to remember The Brigadier, the first top racehorse I got interested in was Dubai Millennium and I’m something of a Frankel obsessive - I saw him race in the flesh for 8 of his 14 races and try to go and see him a few times a year! I’m very happy that he is currently the leading sire at Royal Ascot, having fathered 3 winners so far this week, including yesterday’s Gold Cup winner Courage Mon Ami.

Sorry that last post should have been for @ShamedBySiri

Is Clare Balding a dame yet?

There was once a racehorse iirc, called 'Fag'ash Lill'. (I'll trot off to google. Too warm to canter today.)

Nope Clare is still just Clare, for now.

If anyone is interested there is a great documentary (3 or 4 parts) on Amazon Prime called “Horsepower” which was filmed over a year at Andrew Balding’s (Clare’s little brother) yard.

Thank you for that @CaveMum

A personal favourite of many in the industry, and one that we’ve no idea how it got last the regulators was Gee Spot! She was impeccably named, her father being Pursuit of Love and her mother My Discovery!

Brilliant name! 😂😂😂

I went to a polo match recently and they awarded a prize for the best retrained racehorse. Although I'm familiar with racehorses retraining into eventing and other areas of horse sport I was very surprised that some are able to retrain as polo ponies, those ponies stop on a sixpence and I don't see fast stopping as being a particular trait among racehorses! It was a very fast match at times so of course the speed is useful.

We have been going to Royal Ascot for 40
years. Decided we are now going every other year so we can book lunch at a restaurant there and avoid the seriously hard work of packing a picnic snd all you need for that. They seriously overcharge for car parking! We were offered no 1 this year but decided to pass as we couldn’t have it on Tuesday.

If you go, Tuesday has limited crowds. I prefer that! Also 3 group 1 races. Having said that, yesterday was a fantastic day. I love stayers races so the Gold Cup is always a great race.

DD is there with friends today. Much better occupants of the carriages but Dame Judy’s trilby? Why? A guess she’s being herself but it was not a great look when people make so much effort. Should be a day for shorter priced favourites today!

We went on ladies day and it was lovely to see the king and queen go past. We watched Detorri win and there was a lovely atmosphere. It was busy but well organised and we had delicious drinks and food without queuing. Trains annoyed me - why not run longer trains throughout the week? Outfits were fabulous and sun shone

Would have loved to see Judi Dench!

I’m out and about so have had to screenshot the carriage list from my phone in 2 parts!

So who sat with the king and queen? @CaveMum I was late switching on. Never seen so many long priced winners.

@TizerorFizz I’m guessing they must have been friends of the King and Queen, the Earl of Caledon is Lord Lieutenant of Co Armagh.

Definitely a good week for the bookies, though I did manage to break even for the week thanks to Pyledriver this afternoon!

Ah yes! We know Pyledriver pretty well!