Slade Power, the winner of four European group stakes for sprinters in the last year, will be favored to win the first Group 1 race of his career in Saturday’s $894,705 Diamond Jubilee Stakes on the final day of the five-day Royal Ascot meeting in England.
The Fugue might have run the race of her life Wednesday at Royal Ascot, beating Magician and heavily favored Treve in winning the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes by 1 3/4 lengths in course-record time.
Trainer Wesley Ward and jockey Victor Espinoza will team with To Be Determined, a filly by Elusive Quality, in Thursday’s $135,700 Norfolk Stakes over a straightaway five furlongs at Royal Ascot. To Be Determined was third in a maiden race at Churchill Downs last month, her only start.
The 2-year-old filly Hootenanny gave American trainer Wesley Ward and jockey Victor Espinoza a successful start to the Royal Ascot meeting on Tuesday with an easy win in the Windsor Castle Stakes over five furlongs.
Two French horses, Miss France in the 1000 Guineas and Cirrus des Aigles in the Coronation Cup, already have raided England for Group 1 wins this year, and Treve will be widely expected to make it three Wednesday when she starts in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes, the feature on the second day of the Royal Ascot meeting.
There are American influences from start to finish on Tuesday’s opening day of the Royal Ascot meeting in England, the most highly anticipated week of flat racing on the English calendar.
Avenir Certain ran her perfect record to 5 for 5 and captured her second straight Group 1 race when charging down the outside to overpower her rivals in the Prix de Diane (French Oaks) on Sunday at Chantilly.
George Strawbridge’s unbeaten filly We Are was withdrawn Thursday from the Group 1 Prix de Diane on Sunday at Chantilly, but there are three other undefeated 3-year-old fillies among the 12 entered in a race also known as the French Oaks.
Just a Way, the winner of the $5 million Dubai Duty Free at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai in March, extended his winning streak to four races with a nose victory in Sunday’s $2,031,250 Yasuda Kinen for turf milers at Tokyo Racecourse in Japan.
Before Saturday, the reputation of the 3-year-old colt Australia rested on speculation. Aidan O’Brien said he was among the best horses he’d trained. His pedigree, by Galileo out of Ouija Board, was impeccable. But in the Epsom Derby, Australia demonstrated he was more than airy hype.
