Lord Glitters opens Royal Ascot with upset in Queen Anne Stakes
Six-year-old Lord Glitters won his first Group 1 race by rallying from last to nip Beat the Bank in the Queen Anne Stakes on Tuesday, the first race of the 2019 Royal Ascot meeting in England.
Making his 22nd career start, Lord Glitters got a sweet ride from jockey Danny Tudhope, moving up smoothly from the rear in this straight-course mile. Tudhope got the splits he needed as Lord Glitter reached contention with about a furlong of uphill finish left in the Queen Anne, and though Beat the Bank battled back, Lord Glitters stuck his neck out at the line to score his most important win.
"I thought Danny gave him a lovely ride this afternoon and it was brilliant from the word go,” said David O’Meara, who trains Lord Glitters for Geoff and Sandra Turnbull. "Watching the race, it was one of the easiest Royal Ascot runners we've had to watch as he never looked in trouble.
One Master, who loomed a winner a furlong out, finished a fine third, three-quarters of a length behind Beat the Bank, who ran to the top of his form over going still called “good” despite rain falling during the card. The four horses at the top of a wide-open betting market – Le Brivido, Laurens, Mustashry, and Barney Roy – finished fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth.
The Queen Anne is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In” race for the BC Mile and Lord Glitters has a guaranteed spot in that race and his connections travel expenses to get there. But Lord Glitters isn’t Breeders’ Cup-nominated nor is his sire, Whipper, and it would cost connections $100,000 to nominate him before July 18, $200,000 after that date.
Money aside, O’Meara is among the more adventuresome England-based trainers, shipping his horses regularly around the world. Lord Glitters had a difficult travel experience going to the Woodbine Mile last fall, where he finished sixth in a paceless race, and he started his 2019 campaign with a fine third in the $6 million Dubai Turf at Meydan Racecourse. Lord Glitters flopped in the J.T. Lockinge Stakes on May 18 at Newbury, finishing 13th of 14, but both trainer and jockey said Lord Glitters got entirely the wrong trip that day, and the gelding was back on top of his game Tuesday in a race where he’d been second one year ago.
Lord Glitters is a French-bred out of Lady Glitters, by Homme do Loi, and like several high-class older horses O’Meara has trained, he was purchased privately from France in mid-career, arriving at O’Meara’s yard in the middle of 2017 before evolving into one of the better European milers last season.