Year after year Royal Ascot results play a pivotal role in determining the champions at the annual Cartier Racing Awards.
Big Orange – classy and gutsy performer
The Royal Ascot finish of the week came in the 4000m Gr1 Gold Cup last Thursday, in which Bill and Tim Gredley’s Big Orange (56) (a son of Drakenstein sire Duke Of Marmalade), from Michael Bell’s yard and with James Doyle on board, grittily saw off 2016 winner and Cartier Stayer Order Of St George (28) by a short-head.
Big Orange currently tops the Cartier Stayer division ahead of France’s Vazirabad (31), twice successful in the Gr1 Prix Royal-Oak and a dual Gr2 winner so far in 2017, who had to miss the Gold Cup due to a setback.
Harry Herbert, Cartier’s racing consultant, commented: “Royal Ascot lived up to its billing and provided five of the best days of racing to be found anywhere in the world.
“There were outstanding performances all round, from the sprints to the staying races, which will live long in the memory.
Plenty of Pattern race points were earned for horses going for glory in the 2017 Cartier Racing Awards, which will be presented at a glittering ceremony before an invited audience of 300 at the Dorchester Hotel, London, on the evening of Tuesday, November 14.
Winter (116 Pattern race points), trained by Aidan O’Brien for a Coolmore syndicate, consolidated her position at the head of standings for the Cartier Horse Of The Year after she scooped her third Gr1 race of the 2017 when capturing the mile Coronation Stakes on Friday.
Godolphin enjoyed a fine Gr1 double on the first day of Royal Ascot, with Ribchester (86) in the Queen Anne Stakes and Barney Roy (80) in the St James’s Palace Stakes, and the talented duo move up significantly in the Cartier Horse Of The Year table.
Churchill – disappointed
Also on the 80-point mark is British and Irish 2,000 Guineas scorer Churchill, the 2016 Cartier Two-Year-Old Colt, who disappointed in the St James’s Palace Stakes, as well as Highland Reel and Decorated Knight, who were first and second respectively in the 10-furlong G1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes on the Wednesday.
Ribchester was winning his second G1 mile contest of the year at Royal Ascot, having previously landed the Gr1 Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes at Newbury in May, and he heads the Cartier Older Horse Award category ahead of Decorated Knight and Highland Reel, another Coolmore superstar who has now won close to £6 million in prize money with his six Gr1 successes spread across three continents.
Barney Roy and Churchill share the lead in the Cartier Three-Year-Old Colt division, while Winter holds a hefty advantage in the Cartier Award for three-year-old fillies.
The three Gr1 sprints at Royal Ascot are always thrilling spectacles and did not disappoint in 2017.
Aidan O’Brien – kept Caravaggio on the boil
Currently in top spot for Cartier Sprinter is Caravaggio (60). Trained by Aidan O’Brien for a Coolmore syndicate, the son of Scat Daddy took his unbeaten run to five when getting up in the last half-furlong to deny Godolphin’s Harry Angel (36) by three-quarters of a length in the G1 Commonwealth Cup, staged over six furlongs for three-year-olds on the Friday. The first two winners of the Commonwealth Cup, Muhaarar (2015) and Quiet Reflection (2016), both went on to win the Cartier Sprinter Award.
Lady Aurelia (32) created history in 2016 when becoming the first US-trained horse to win a Cartier Racing Award, the Cartier Two-Year-Old Filly, and the flying Scat Daddy filly is in contention again for more Cartier glory this year, having run away with Tuesday’s five-furlong Gr1 King’s Stand Stakes for trainer Wesley Ward.
The third Gr1 Royal Ascot sprint, Saturday’s Diamond Jubilee Stakes over six furlongs, saw The Tin Man (32), trained by James Fanshawe and ridden by Tom Queally, get the better of Tasleet (32) by a neck.
The European Flat racing season is now entering its high-summer schedule, with the Irish middle-distance Classics and Newmarket’s Moët & Chandon July Festival both approaching.
Cartier Racing Awards – points in Pattern races up to and including
Sunday, June 25, 2017
Cartier Horse Of The Year
Winter 116
Ribchester 86
Barney Roy 80
Churchill 80
Decorated Knight 80
Highland Reel 80
Brametot 72
Big Orange 56
Cloth Of Stars 56
Wings Of Eagles 52
Cartier Older Horse
Ribchester 86
Decorated Knight 80
Highland Reel 80
Cloth Of Stars 56
Mekhtaal 40
Cartier Three-Year-Old Colt
Barney Roy 80
Churchill 80
Brametot 72
Wings Of Eagles 52
Thunder Snow 46
Cartier Three-Year-Old Filly
Winter 116
Rhododendron 48
Enable 48
Senga 44
Precieuse 36
Cartier Sprinter
Caravaggio 40
Harry Angel 36
Lady Aurelia 32
Tasleet 32
The Tin Man 32
Cartier Stayer
Big Orange 56
Vazirabad 31
Order Of St George 28
Polarisation 24
Dartmouth 16
Stradivarius 16
