Royal Ascot Day Four Review: Bolger's day in the sun

Royal Ascot / Editor / 20 June 2008 / Leave a Comment

Chris Barnett's take on the fantastic fare from Berkshire

The fourth day of Royal Ascot unquestionably belonged to Jim Bolger and Kevin Manning. They teamed up with two winners this afternoon, eclipsing fellow countryman Aidan O'Brien who had dominated the winners circle until today.

Cuis Ghaire was an impressive winner of the opener, the Albany Stakes over six furlongs, a distance Bolger feels is too short for this daughter of Galileo. She will now step up to further, with a possible target the 2009 1,000 Guineas - but don't quote him on that!!

Bolger and Manning also won the feature race of the day, the Coronation Stakes for fillies over one mile. He brought English Oaks failure, Lush Lashes back in trip, a surprise to many, but the risk paid off with a memorable victory for the Irish trainer, in a race worth over £150,000 to the winner. Infallible battled on for second with Caribbean Sunset causing a minor surprise, back in third.

Godolphin and Frankie Dettori finally got off the mark for the week when Campanologist battled hard to defeat Conduit and Top Lock in the King Edward VII Stakes over a mile-and-a-half, and there were wins for Hugh Morrison's Supaseus in the mile-and-a-quarter Wolverton Handicap Stakes, and Dandy Nicholl's Regal Parade over seven furlongs in the Buckingham Palace Stakes, the final race of the day.

Steve Drowne added to his wins by riding Supaseus and is now just one winner behind leader, Johnny Murtagh on three for the week. With a couple more good rides available to Drowne, the jockey's championship is far from over at this stage.

Perhaps the most impressive winner of the day was Patkai for Sir Michael Stoute and Ryan Moore. This son of Indian Ridge powered away from his rivals to win, going away by seven lengths from Amerigo and Gravitation. Patkai is certainly a class horse with a good future at long distance races.

Saturday sees the final day of Royal Ascot 2008. The feature race at 4.25 is the Golden Jubilee Stakes, with Australia's Takeover Target, French-trained Marchand d'Or and Ireland's US Ranger all taking on local hope, Sakhee's Secret. This looks like being another fascinating race on this year's Royal Ascot card. Saturday also includes the ultra-difficult, Wokingham Stakes at 3.45 over six furlongs , before closing up with the Queen Alexandra Stakes, a class 2 conditions race over the extended two miles five furlongs at 5.35.

So, still much to enjoy and you can hear it unfold, live on Betfair Radio 1, with the Chesham Stakes getting the whole thing going at 2.30.