Horses, of course, have more sense than to bet on people. But how much do they know about what is going on? Watching the contenders parading before the Betfair-sponsored King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, the richest race in the UK calendar, you could not miss the frothy sweat already streaming down the flanks of the Aidan O’Brien-trained Rockhampton. Had somebody already told him it was going to be his task to act as the hare out in front, making the pace for O’Brien’s other two stars, Frozen Fire and Golden Sword?
Rockhampton did his job, but it proved not to be to the benefit of Team O’Brien, who have swept up so many Ascot prizes in recent years. Instead he set things up perfectly for Sir Michael Stoute’s Conduit, the St Leger and Breeders’ Cup victor who is at his best when coming from off the pace in a strongly run race. Though he impeded his stable companion Tartan Bearer marginally, Conduit won on merit with the other Stoute entrant Ask taking third place. There were beads of sweat, too, on Sir Michael’s face after the race. But they were not the result of any anxiety during it. In the heat it could not have gone more according to plan with his threesome finishing in their expected pecking order.
Even jockey Ryan Moore, whose post-race reactions often give the average speak-your-weight machine a pretty level contest for animation, permitted himself a gentle smile as he returned to the winner’s enclosure. With his ten per cent of £445,000 riding on the choice, he had had to make his selection from the three Stoute entries, and jockeys can famously and expensively get these things wrong.
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