Timeform’s David Cleary collates his notes from the paddock at Royal Ascot 2024, concentrating on the two-year-olds.
There’s a stark contrast in the ante-post markets for the first two classics of 2025. In the 2000 Guineas, there are three colts at the head of the pack, at around 20/1 – Cadogan and Henri Matisse, who were first and second in a maiden at the Curragh at the end of last month, and Kingofthehighseas. The last-named, trained by Aidan O’Brien, is a son of Sottsass, bought for €380,000 as a yearling, who hasn’t even been entered in a maiden yet.
However, the picture in the 1000 Guineas is much clearer after events at Royal Ascot. Aidan O’Brien produced two fillies who already look likely to dominate their generation – at least as juveniles – and they both have the physique and pedigree to make a significant impact at three years as well.
Fairy Godmother, a miraculous ¾-length winner of the Albany Stakes, and Bedtime Story, who powered away from her rivals to land the Chesham Stakes by 9½ lengths, produced performances head and shoulders above the other two-year-old winners on the week. Both also produced performances that were backed up by the clock and both, for differing reasons, were value for a fair bit more than their winning margin.
Fairy Godmother did amazingly well to win, after finding all sorts of trouble, quickening to lead in the last 50 yards after having to switch round half the field, sure to have won by significantly further had she had a clear passage. Bedtime Story powered away from her field in the last quarter-mile, the ability there to widen the margin had her rider asked her to do so.
In terms of physique, both have plenty about them. Fairy Godmother to my eye is the more developed at this stage, having size and substance; Bedtime Story is a scopey filly who has a bit of filling out to do. Both look like they will be around at a high level into next season.
Bedtime Story is by Frankel out of the dual Nunthorpe winner Mecca’s Angel. Two of her close relatives, by Frankel’s sire Galileo, have raced, the twice-raced Hudson River, who won over seven furlongs on debut, and Content. The latter ran respectably in the Coronation Stakes last week and is due to run over a mile and a quarter in the Pretty Polly Stakes at the weekend. Despite her dam, there is no doubt about Bedtime Story staying a mile, perhaps further.
Fairy Godmother is also by a Guineas winner, Night of Thunder, and has plenty of speed on the dam’s side of her pedigree. Her half-brother Sketch and her lightly-raced dam Scintilating didn’t run beyond six furlongs at two, and neither did Scintilating’s useful half-brother Prolific. Prolific won the Richmond and was placed in the Norfolk and July Stakes. There are relatives with a bit more stamina in her pedigree, but Fairy Godmother may find herself kept to six furlongs as a two-year-old.
In terms of the two races as a whole, the Albany looks a deeper race than the Chesham, where the vast majority were maidens. In terms of physique too, the field for the Chesham was about the weakest of the week. Apart from the winner, I liked most Pentle Bay and Duke of Monroth. Pentle Bay is an athletic sort with plenty of stamina in his pedigree. He came through late to claim second after the winner had long gone. He’ll progress again, particularly as his stamina is further tested.
Duke of Monroth was a second Amo-owned two-year-old to debut last week, but he didn’t shape nearly so well as the other, Angelo Buonarroti, of whom more later, stopping quickly after racing handily.
Of the others behind Fairy Godmother in the Albany, the runner-up Simmering is an attractive filly who got a textbook Spencer ride and produced an effort that would have been good enough to win the race on several occasions. She’s a maiden after two starts, but a novice/maiden might be a waste of a run on this evidence, with the Duchess of Cambridge or Princess Margaret next perhaps, though she will stay seven furlongs.
There was also plenty to like about the winner’s stable-companion Heavens Gate. A scopey filly with a much stouter pedigree than the first two, she ensured the race was a good test at the trip and was headed only in the last 50 yards. She’ll win at this level before long.
The week’s two-year-old action had opened with the Coventry Stakes on Tuesday. This looked wide open beforehand, partly because none in the field had run to the sort of level expected of a Coventry winner. It proved open as well, with barely a length covering the first six to finish. The form is hard to rate particularly highly, though it is likely, judged on looks, pedigree and potential, that a few of the runners will turn out to be useful or better.
Form assessment is complicated by the way the field split into two groups. The distances suggest that the group that raced far side, including the winner Rashabar, were at a disadvantage in relation to the stands’ side group. The same was true of the Queen Mary on the second day, though this was a messy race with trouble in running in the stand side group. However, for the Windsor Castle the advantage swung significantly to the stand side, the smaller group there dominant.
Ascot being Ascot.
The paddock pick for the Coventry was the afore-mentioned Angelo Buonarroti. He’s a strapping sort, who cost a million euro at the breeze-ups. One could see why. Asking him to debut in the Coventry possibly isn’t the wisest move long term, but he offered plenty of encouragement with the way he travelled, comfortable with the pace, before inexperience got the better of him off the bridle. Angelo Buonarroti has a classy pedigree to go with his looks and he ought to be well up to winning races.
My second choice on looks would be the Havana Grey gelding Symbol of Honour. He’s a strong, attractive type, very much the sprinter that would be expected from his pedigree. He shaped well, too, showing pace and sticking to his task. He will continue to give a good account.
Of the quartet that filled the frame, the pick on looks was probably the fourth, Cool Hoof Luke. He’d won readily at Chelmsford on debut (from Brian, who was placed in the Chesham later in the week) and stepped up on that effort, making most. He will progress again.
The Queen Mary, which opened Wednesday’s card, saw a huge gamble on Kassaya go astray. The clear paddock pick and with a top-notch pedigree, the well-made Kassaya could finish only twelfth, but her rider Oisin Murphy had a nightmare passage, and unlike Fairy Godmother later in the week there was no way the filly could overcome her troubles, Murphy letting her come home in her own time. Kassaya is one to be interested in again at this level.
One other to mention from the Queen Mary is Oxford Rock. She looked very well in herself beforehand and impressed with the way she moved into the race before her effort just flattened out late on. This still represented an advance on her debut form and there looks sure to be more to come.
The winner Leovanni was easy to back, but she stepped up markedly on her debut form to win in ready fashion. She isn’t the biggest – her stable-companion Miss Lamai, who finished fourth, has more about her – but she’s evidently useful and should progress again, the Lowther perhaps a race to suit her.
Leovanni’s trainer Karl Burke landed a second two-year-old prize when Shareholder won the Norfolk the next day, and in between there was another juvenile triumph for the north when the Kevin Ryan-trained Ain’t Nobody got the better of the American challenger Gabaldon by a length.
Ain’t Nobody is a proper sprinter on looks and, unusually for the race, he produced a performance of a similar standard to those of the Coventry and Norfolk winners. His sire Sands of Mali won the Gimcrack as a two-year-old, and it would be no surprise to see Ain’t Nobody aimed at that race too.
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