Spring racing snapshot

At present, it feels like life is getting increasingly in the way of writing, with the result that I blinked and suddenly we’re nearly at Royal Ascot.

The end of the National Hunt season was bittersweet: after a fabulous few months of competition in which we saw old favourites and new names battle it out on familiar ground, a sad headline closed the season with the sudden death of Shishkin at the end of April. Shishkin was a dual-Cheltenham-winning headline-grabbing superstar who was anything but predictable, always entertaining and, aged only ten, had a potentially glittering career still ahead of him. Such news always hits hard, and the racing world was shocked to the core to lose such a fine equine ambassador.

It’s a tough sport and it’s never easy to just go on as if such things don’t occur – but time marches on and so does the industry. And so, bidding farewell to a warrior over jumps, we have entered the flat season ready to meet the new batch of athletes of 2024.

The first major meeting of the season brought plenty of excitement as a series of famous races were won by outsiders. On the first day of Newmarket’s Guineas meeting, the Jockey Club Stakes was won by 50-1 (and nine year-old to boot) Outbox; and in the two days that followed, the Palace House Stakes was won by 33-1 Seven Questions and the Dahlia Stakes by 5-1 Stay Alert. Even the two key races of the meeting, the 2,000 and 1,000 Guineas, were claimed by Notable Speech (16-1) and Elmalka (28-1) respectively – leaving City Of Troy and Fallen Angel as unplaced favourites.

The Chester Festival provided some slightly more predictable endings: although the first and third days saw only one favourite winner each, in day two’s Ormonde Stakes Point Lonsdale lived up to his 13-8 odds with a six-and-a-half-length win for Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore. It was Moore’s third consecutive win of the day, after Capulet won the Dee Stakes and Never So Brave won the Halliwell Jones Handicap as evens favourite.

Over in Curragh, the Irish Guineas Festival saw crowns reclaimed: odds-on favourite Rosallion won the Irish 2,000 Guineas by a head over Haatem, having come second earlier in the month at Newmarket. Meanwhile, Fallen Angel also recovered from Newmarket disappointment – comprehensively winning the Irish 1,000 Guineas by two-and-three-quarter lengths.

On home soil, all eyes were on the other ‘disappointment’ as the Derby arrived to kick off June: pundits and crowds alike were divided as to whether City Of Troy really had the promise that had been much-vaunted, following a shocker of a run that saw him come in ninth in the 2,000 Guineas. O’Brien had no doubts about his three year-old, however, and it seems his confidence was well-placed. City Of Troy put the doubters in their place as he and Moore picked off the competition and cruised to victory.

City Of Troy is declared for Royal Ascot and so we will see if he continues to live up to expectations. Kicking off in just over a week, we hope to see five days of Royal waves, resounding renditions of the National Anthem, fabulous outfits and, most importantly, the outstanding spectacle that is racing at its highest standard.