Trip to Paris, Moore share spotlight

Trip to Paris, who had to be supplemented into the race, upset the Group 1 Gold Cup on Thursday at Royal Ascot, but it was jockey Ryan Moore who stole the show.

Moore rode Kingfisher to a second-place finish in the Gold Cup but booted home the winner in three of the six races on the Thursday card. That gave him eight winners from the 18 races contested during the first three days of the meeting and equaled a Royal Ascot record – with two cards still left.

Moore’s exploits prompted trainer Aidan O’Brien to call Moore the greatest jockey he’d ever seen, though O’Brien does have an interest in putting the jockey on such a pedestal, since Moore has become the No. 1 rider for O’Brien and Coolmore this year.

Two of Moore’s wins Thursday, on Waterloo Bridge in the Group 2 Norfolk for 2-year-olds and on War Envoy in the listed Britannia Stakes, came on O’Brien-trained runners, and his third, on Curvy, was for another Coolmore trainer, David Wachman. Curvy won the Group 2 Ribblesdale over the favored Pleascach despite being part of serious crowding late in the running. Waterloo Bridge, off only a maiden win at Tipperary, blasted home over the favored Richard Hannon Jr.-trained pair of Log Out Island and King of Rooks, while War Envoy scored by a neck at double-digit odds.

It was a far lesser-known rider, Graham Lee, who got Trip to Paris home in the 2 1/2-mile Gold Cup, and trainer Ed Dunlop unlocked Trip to Paris’s full potential only this year after stretching him out to true stayers’ trips. Trip to Paris ran on in the final furlong Thursday as the favored Forgotten Rules, who had the lead a quarter-mile out, either failed to get the trip or didn’t show his best on very firm going.

But the day’s best performance might have belonged to Time Test, who routed rivals while making his group stakes debut in the Group 3 Tercentenary for 3-year-olds over 1 1/4 miles. A Juddmonte Farms homebred trained by Roger Charlton, Time Test collared the leaders without ever being asked and rolled home to an impressive score under Frankie Dettori.

Brazen Beau favored in Jubilee

The Group 1 Diamond Jubilee over six furlongs is the featured race on Saturday’s final card of the Royal Ascot season and gets ample support from the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes.

The Australian invader Brazen Beau is the favorite for the Diamond Jubilee, which Aussie star Black Caviar won in 2012. Brazen Beau has been first or second in eight of his 10 starts and has won two Group 1 sprints, and his connections surely would be pleased if the fast going seen so far at the meeting prevails through closing day.

Mustajeeb, who was sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Mile last fall, turned back to six furlongs and was a sharp winner last out of the Group 2 Greenlands Stakes at The Curragh, form lines that have made him the second choice in overseas betting in the Diamond Jubilee.

The 12-furlong Hardwicke has at the head of the betting markets Telescope, who won the 2014 edition of the race by seven lengths. Postponed and Eagle Top appear to be his main rivals.