Gavin Cromwell
Gavin Cromwell’s William Hill blog: Excited for Amo runner at Royal Ascot
With less than a week to go until Royal Ascot, William Hill ambassador Gavin Cromwell gives the low-down on all of his six potential runners, including one in Kia Joorabchian’s famous purple silks.
Bet on Royal Ascot at William Hill
Excited to have an Amo runner at Royal Ascot
We have six horses who could potentially go to Royal Ascot this year and one we’re very excited about is Kayhana, who’ll go for the Kensington Palace Stakes (Wednesday, 5.35pm). She’s only had one run for us where she was just beaten by a head at Gowran Park a couple of weeks ago.
She’s just been bought by Amo Racing and it’s really exciting for us to have a runner for them at Ascot. We’re hoping there’s more improvement to come from her and she can be competitive in this race. She drops back to a mile here which shouldn’t be a problem for her in a fast-run race and she’ll definitely get further.
Five more possible Royal runners
We’re hoping to have a couple of runners on the Tuesday, the first of which would be Robbies Rock in the Ascot Stakes (5pm). He’s just on the borderline of getting into the race but hopefully he will.
We’re very happy with him and I think it’s very possible that he could keep progressing from his current mark. He’s a big, tall horse who seems to be constantly improving and I think the step up in trip is going to bring about even more. He’s pretty unexposed and could definitely keep improving.
Next we have My Mate Mozzie set to go for the Copper Horse Handicap (Tuesday, 6.10pm) again. He’s a year older and a couple of pounds higher than when he finished third in the race last year, so there might be a couple of factors against him. That said, he’s working really well, he’s fresh, and ready to go. He should run well.
We have another potential runner for the Kensington Palace in Snellen. We decided against running her in the Kooyonga at Navan on Saturday but she did have a racecourse gallop there.
She runs well fresh and we’re happy with her at home. I can’t say she’s particularly well-in in the handicap but she’s in good shape and if she runs to her mark she could go well. She drops back to the mile having gone over further out in Bahrain, but the next fillies-only race would have required her to step up to a mile-and-a-half which would stretch her. It’s a stiff, straight mile which takes plenty of getting and that should suit her.
Fiery Lucy could still potentially go to Ascot after her run at Musselburgh over the weekend. It was a messy race and in hindsight she might’ve been better making the running – I thought she ran well in the circumstances. She may have an entry for Ascot but we’re not certain so we’ll have to see how things go over the next couple of days.
Our final runner is Brownstown who will hopefully go for the Chesham (Saturday, 2.30pm). She will run at Leopardstown on Thursday (4.40pm) which obviously comes quite close to Ascot, but hopefully she’ll come out of that well and be ready to go next Saturday. We’ll see how she goes and take it from there.
We won the race back in 2023 with Snellen and the conditions of the race are very unique. She fits the mould and she’s taken her training well. A lot will depend on how she runs at Leopardstown and that should tell us whether she’s capable of lining up in the Chesham. Based on her work at home, I think she’s a horse that can keep improving.
Unfortunately, neither Sixandahalf nor Joyful Tidings will make the meeting. Sixandahalf will go on a break now after a disappointing run at the Curragh, while Joyful Tidings has sadly pulled a muscle and won’t be ready in time.
Don’t rule out a Derby runner in the future
Royal Ascot is the main Flat meeting for us at the moment but I would never rule out having runners in some of the other major races in the future, such as the Derby. We’re not setting out with a specific plan to do that, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
We’ll keep trying to do things right and trying to improve. Who knows where it will lead us?
