Sir Henry Cecil
HISTORY was made today as Her Majesty The Queen became the first reigning monarch to win the Ascot Gold Cup when 4yo Estimate lived up to her stamina laden pedigree and won the gruelling two and half mile contest by a neck from Simenon.
Surely Royal Ascot had never seen such exuberant, jubilant scenes as hardened racegoers and once a year visitors celebrated the most popular winner of the week so far and probably the most popular winner since the Queen attended her first Royal Ascot at the tender age of 19.
Sir Michael Stoute was not confident beforehand. How could you be in what looked beforehand a very open Gold Cup? There was no disguising the pleasure among connections afterwards with even the usual studious Ryan Moore allowing himself a rare smile.
The day began with an American winner in the Norfolk Stakes and what an awesome machine the 2yo Nay Nay Never was. He dwarfed his 13 rivals beforehand and during the race destroyed the opposition including the 9/4 favourite, Coach House by a length, breaking the juvenile track record over 5f.
In between a popular and well backed American winner and the Queen capturing the Gold Cup, there was surely not a dry eye in the house when Lady Cecil’s Riposte won the Ribblesdale by an impressive 2 1/4 lengths on only her third start. Everyone had been willing a winner for Warren Place and how fitting that it should be in the Ribblesdale, a race Sir Henry had won five times and for Prince Khalid Abdullah, his principle patron and personal friend.
Racing does not get much better than today when horses, trainers and jockeys seemed to have read their scripts to perfection.
Let us all hope the Prince Khalid owned Disclaimer has read his script for the fifth race tomorrow, the Queen’s Vase (In Memory of Sir Henry Cecil).
Posted by Simon Double on 20 June 2013
