Dubai: Dubai Racing Carnival (DRC) and Dubai World Cup day form will be strongly represented throughout all five days of Royal Ascot, which begins tomorrow, Tuesday 17 June. There are eight Group 1s across the week, the first of which is the opening Queen Anne Stakes. Cairo, second in the G2 Al Rashidiya at Meydan Racecourse in December, takes his chance for trainer Alice Haynes but faces a tough task against favourite Rosallion and three-time US Grade I winner Carl Spackler.
According to Emirates News Agency, the G1 King Charles III Stakes is always a strong sprint and it sees the return of the first and third from the G1 Al Quoz Sprint on April’s Dubai World Cup card, Believing and Regional. Believing, who is in foal to Frankel, arrives at Ascot in excellent form, according to her trainer George Boughey. “It was a huge result in Dubai to get her Group 1 win,” he said. “Her general demeanor and her work had been top class; she’s a filly who has always threatened to win a Group 1.”
Meydan form is also represented by Frost At Dawn, winner of the 2024 G3 Nad Al Sheba Turf Sprint, who runs in the silks of UAE owner Abdulla Al Mansoori. Ruling Court carries Meydan form into Tuesday’s third Group 1, the St James’s Palace Stakes for three-year-old colts. Winner of the Listed Jumeirah 2000 Guineas, Charlie Appleby’s charge then won the G1 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and faces Field Of Gold, second that day, again here.
The highlight of Wednesday’s action is the G1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes over 2000 metres, featuring 2024 G1 Dubai Turf winner Facteur Cheval for Jerome Reynier. US-based rider Flavien Prat will be onboard the six-year-old for the first time. Certain Lad, a winner at the Carnival back in 2020, is also in the field for trainer Jack Channon, while Aidan O’Brien saddles Continuous, who ran down the field in the G2 Dubai Gold Cup.
Dual Meydan winner Cinderella’s Dream returned to UK action with a win at Newmarket last time out and lines up as favourite in the G2 Duke Of Cambridge Stakes. Arabian Light, winner of the Lord Glitters Handicap at the Carnival, runs in the Royal Hunt Cup, also on Wednesday.
Trawlerman, who has run in three G2 Dubai Gold Cups, takes his chance in Thursday’s G1 Gold Cup, the official feature of the whole meeting. John and Thady Gosden’s gelding aims to improve on last year’s second-place finish behind Kyprios. Also on Thursday, The Fingal Raven, second in the Jumeirah 2000 Guineas to Ruling Court, competes in the Britannia Handicap for trainer Jamie Osborne.
The final G1 of the week is the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes on Saturday. Symbol Of Honour, winner of the Al Wasl Stakes and Dubai Trophy at Meydan for Appleby, is a leading contender. The penultimate race of the meeting, the Golden Gates Stakes, features Norway-based trainer Niels Petersen’s first runner at the meeting, War Socks, who was third to Ruling Court in the Listed Jumeirah 2000 Guineas and tackles 2000 metres for the first time here.