Ginger Rogers, clever girl, did everything that Fred Astaire did — but she did it backwards. I am looking backwards in this Turf column and doing so without apologies because it was such a wonderful Ascot. The sheer delight on the Queen’s face when Estimate made her the first reigning monarch to have a winner of the Gold Cup would have made the meeting on its own. But emotions were high, too, when we had two winners from the late Sir Henry Cecil’s yard, now presided over by Lady Cecil, although triumph became tragedy when one of them, Thomas Chippendale, collapsed and died after the finishing post.
We had the milers’ race of the year, which we had been denied in the 2,000 Guineas, with Dawn Approach recovering from his Derby flop and holding off Toronado by a head in the St James’s Palace Stakes. Punters should never ignore a change of mind from Jim Bolger. Then there was the trio of winners from Sir Michael Stoute reminding us that he is back in business and an 891—1 treble confirming the top-table status of jockey James Doyle.
Rookie trainer Olly Stevens had his first Ascot winner with Extortionist and the 78-year-old Clive Brittain enjoyed his 17th with Rizeena, his joie-de-vivre ensuring that the rest of us enjoyed it, too. But the best thing for me this year was the performance of the veteran jockey Johnny Murtagh, who at 43 came out as the meeting’s champion jockey.
It may just be a last Ascot hurrah for him, not because he has lost an ounce of his talent but because he is now combining riding with training in Ireland. Johnny says that he wants to go on competing as a rider in the big international races, but as we have seen with others in the past combining the two roles is a massive strain and sooner or later something has to give.
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