International Runners Part 1

With just a week to go until Royal Ascot, we're delighted to welcome aboard Laura King, Managing Editor at World Horse Racing, and contributor to the Racing Post, TR Commentary and Dubai Racing. In Part One of her first piece for us, Laura takes us through the International runners heading the flat season showpiece next week.

The flags waved during the post-race singsong will be red, white and blue, but Royal Ascot has become an increasingly international affair in recent years. There’s no Japan or Hong Kong this time, but runners from Australia, America and France are all expected to grace the pristine Berkshire turf in two weeks’ time.

America’s Wesley Ward is unparalled among international trainers at the meeting with 12 winners so far. However, there’s a possibility that he’s finding it tougher these days, with no winner at the meeting since Campanelle was awarded the G1 Commonwealth Cup by the stewards in 2021.

Ward, who has long maintained that Ascot is the focus of his year, has a select team this time with just three or four two-year-olds crossing the Atlantic from his Kentucky base. One of them, homebred Keeneland maiden winner Saturday Flirt, has a choice of engagements between the Norfolk and the Queen Mary. Her debut was impressive; the big daughter of Mendelssohn circling most of the field and giving away plenty of ground before winning with a bit in hand. She’s one to take seriously, especially if sticking to the fillies’ race.

The Queen Mary is the likely race for another Ward trainee, Ultima Grace, also one from one at Keeneland, who will be ridden by Hall Of Fame jockey John Velazquez. He also rode her in her debut, when she couldn’t have been more impressive, coasting to an effortless victory over four and a half furlongs on the dirt. She’ll need to handle the surface switch, but is by American Pharoah out of a Scat Daddy mare, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

While Ward is an established name for Royal Ascot racegoers, Jose Francisco D’Angelo will be a new one for most. A former champion trainer in his native Venezuela, D’Angelo moved to Florida in 2019 and has steadily improved his string since, campaigning Preakness Stakes third Jesus’ Team among others. Recently, D’Angelo has set his sights further afield with runners in Saudi Arabia and Dubai, but Gabaldon will be his first in the UK.

The grey colt comes to Ascot courtesy of the track’s link up with Gulfstream Park in Florida, which sees the winner of two juvenile races gain entry to corresponding events at the royal meeting. Gabaldon, a $9000 son of Gone Astray, won the five furlong Royal Palm Juvenile Stakes on debut under jockey Emisael Jaramillo, who retains the ride. He’ll be a outsider in the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes, but it’s worth remembering that Crimson Advocate, a winner of the Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies’ race, took the same route to Ascot before winning the Group 2 Queen Mary last year.

Check out Part 1 HERE

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