Royal Ascot 2026: Host of American juveniles invade world-class meet
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None of the 10 American horses who recently flew to England will see racing action on Tuesday’s opening day of the 2026 Royal Ascot meeting, but an England-based horse with lofty American achievements and a future American goal features prominently in the very start of the five-day stand.
Notable Speech, winner of the 2025 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar and aimed toward the 2026 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland, sat squarely at the top of the antepost betting market Friday for the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes, the annual lidlifter at Royal Ascot.
The meeting begins with a first-race bang, and while star power pops up on all five of the programs, Day 1 features the best racecard.
Following the Queen Anne, a straight-course mile, comes the first of the Royal Ascot 2-year-old stakes, the Group 2 Coventry over five furlongs. Next up, the five-furlong King Charles III, one of two Group 1 sprints for older horses, the other the six-furlong Queen Elizabeth II on Saturday. And finally, Tuesday’s last Group 1, the St. James’s Palace, a one-turn mile for 3-year-olds. Bow Echo, the 2000 Guineas winner, is atop the market as the odds-on favorite.
The 10 Americans, stabled at three locations, are top-heavy on 2-year-olds and Wesley Ward-trained runners.
Ward started running horses at Royal Ascot many years before the move became all the rage among American connections. The first foreign trainer to find regular success there, Ward has not won at the Royal meeting since 2021 but has seven chances this year. Five of his runners are 2-year-olds, all fillies, and all entered in the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes on Wednesday’s card. Not all of them will run there, and those that don’t will be redirected to the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes on Saturday, a race, unlike the Queen Mary, open to males.
Ruiva might be Ward’s sharpest Ascot juvenile this year and figures to pop up in the Queen Mary. American-based jockeys John Velazquez and Juan Hernandez are expected to ride some of the runners for Ward, who has the 3-year-old Outfielder for the Group 1 Commonwealth, a six-furlong, age-restricted sprint on Friday. Ward will start Bacio in the listed Palace of Holyroodhouse Stakes on Friday.
Two more American fillies – More Champagne and Celtic Dispute – also go for the Queen Mary. Sandal’s Song, trained by George Weaver, runs in the Palace of Holyroodhouse Stakes.
Daryz and Ombudsman top the Wednesday feature, the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes over 1 1/4 miles. Scandinavia headlines the Thursday feature, the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup, and Aidan O’Brien trains the two favorites, Precise and True Love, for the other Group 1 on Friday, the Coronation Stakes over a one-turn mile.
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