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DRF Past Performances
By Tom Collins
Tuesday, June 16
Copper Horse Handicap
Aeronautic
Trainer Joseph O’Brien has made an excellent start to the 2026 flat season with his two primary wins coming on British soil thanks to Thundering On’s scintillating Oaks victory and A Piece Of Heaven’s courageous Chester Cup strike. A successful Royal Ascot awaits, and he may get off to a good start with Aeronautic in Tuesday’s finale.
By Leo Schlink
Ethan Brown jubilated in the best day of a burgeoning short-term Hong Kong stint with a dominant display at Sha Tin on Saturday (13 June), when the Australian posted a treble and fulfilled an ambition to ride a winner for John Size.
Already a two-time Grade 1 winner this spring, it is no surprise that Croix du Nord topped the fan balloting that partially determines the field for Sunday’s Grade 1 Takarazuka Kinen at Hanshin Racecourse in Japan.
The field for the $3.5 million Takarazuka Kinen at 1 3/8 miles is determined by a fan vote and money earnings. Croix du Nord, a 4-year-old colt who has won 7 of 10 starts, will be favored in a field of 18.
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.
Fri, 06/12/2026 - 11:59
By Paul Ryding
Mark Newnham will aim to maintain his trainers’ title challenge when he sends a lean squad of six runners to Sha Tin’s ‘Summer Series’ fixture on Saturday (13 June).
The championship leaders have been finding it increasingly difficult to live with the momentum of Caspar Fownes’ (62 wins) bid for a fifth trainers’ championship. He now sits four wins clear of Newnham’s tally of 58, with Danny Shum in third on 57.
Trips to France are defining the career of the 3-year-old filly Diamond Necklace, who is part of trainer Aidan O’Brien’s powerful stable in Ireland.
Last October, Diamond Necklace won the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac at Longchamp, France’s leading race for 2-year-old fillies. Diamond Necklace won the Group 1 French 1000 Guineas at Longchamp on May 10 in her first start this year.
Diamond Necklace is back in France for Sunday’s Group 1 French Oaks at Chantilly Racecourse where she will be an odds-on favorite to extend her unbeaten streak to five races.
By Kevin Blake
Older Horses
Adelaide River
6 b g Australia – Could It Be Love
Rated 108, he was formerly trained by Aidan O’Brien for whom he finished second in the Irish Derby and the Grand Prix de Paris prior to moving to Australia and running well without winning in Group company. He joined O’Brien late last year and finished an eye-catching third to Minnie Hauk in the Mooresbridge Stakes at the Curragh on his first start for him.
Aidan O’Brien is simply a phenomenon in the world of racing. Since being appointed as the trainer in the historic Ballydoyle complex in 1996 at the age of just 26, he has broken every record worth breaking and won every race worth winning in Europe and beyond.
Royal Ascot has always been a focus point for O’Brien and it is a meeting that he has enjoyed a great amount of success at. Indeed, he overtook Sir Michael Stoute as the most successful trainer in the long history of the meeting in 2024 with his record now standing at 96 winners.
By Paul Jones
Tuesday, June 16
Ascot Stakes
With 13 of the last 17 winners sent off at no bigger than 14/1 and, in the last 36 years, as a many as 23 winners could be found in the first six in the betting, the Ascot Stakes has been the most punter-friendly handicap of the meeting, though not quite so much of late with 66/1 and 20/1 (x2) winners in the last six years.