Elmalka will run in the Duke Of Cambridge – she’s been wonderful for us. I’m looking forward to dropping this filly back to a mile. She’s run very well twice this year. She was second in the Darley and then she was fourth next up, just coming up a bit shy against those colts, in France last month in the Prix D’Ispahan at Longchamp. Silvestre de Sousa will ride her at Ascot. She’s been wonderful for us. She’s a Classic winner. She’s won a Guineas and they’re treasured moments and big races to put on your CV. She’s from Nahrain who of course we trained to win the Prix de L’Opera. Nahrain was my first Group One winner. It’s a special family and it was nice for her to have won the Guineas last year and hopefully she can add another big one to her CV.
I’ve also got Rahiebb in the Queen’s Vase. He’s got a nice profile. He won on debut and finished second three times in a row. But all three of them have been good weight carrying performances; second twice under that the novice penalty, and then gave Merchant eight pounds at York and got beat two lengths. I thought that was a good run and I think that Rahiebb will enjoy the step up in trip. He’ll go there with a chance to run well.
Royal Ascot is one of the highlights of the year. We’re really looking forward to the week. It’s one of the highlights of the year in terms of intensity, but also enjoyment. Doing my job, if you can’t enjoy being at Royal Ascot, Royal Week, and enjoying the competition and the people that you see that week, then it’s probably time to do something else. We’re really looking forward to the week, but obviously it comes with its own pressure as well. We don’t mind that! The day we’re not going there with runners and with the pressure for horses to run well, we’ll be in trouble!
We credit Varian’s quotes to horse racing betting
KEANE WINS ON FIELD OF GOLD
Meanwhile day one at Royal Ascot saw Trim jockey Colin Keane ride on Field Of Gold result in a comfortable win in the St James’s Palace Stakes Group I (Colts). He never appeared phased in top company being held in rear and made his move pushing out and travelled well. None of the other colts could follow him for the pace and ended up winning with relative ease by 3 1/2 lengths to Aidan O’Brien trained and jokey Ryan Moore on Henri Matisse. None of the quality field put up a real challenge yesterday. Field Of Gold justified the tag of odds-on favourite and returned at 8/11 for Juddmonte owners with a purse of £369,000.
