Royal Ascot 2023 day-by-day recap

Flat racing’s premier meeting has been and gone for another year leaving behind some great stories and talking points to get stuck into. 

Ryan Moore’s masterclass, Frankie Dettori’s farewell, and the first Royal Ascot winner for King Charles III and Queen Camilla are just a few of the magical moments from this year’s renewal of the five-day meeting.

So, with the Royal meeting still fresh in our minds, here is your day-by-day round-up of the brilliant Berkshire action.

Day 1 – Ireland’s best to the fore 

In years gone by, Aidan O’Brien and Royal Ascot have been synonymous with one another, so much so that he gained his 12th trainers’ championship and became the all-time most successful trainer at the meeting in the same week.

His success on the track began in just the second race on Tuesday as River Tiber built on his Naas victory to remain unbeaten in the Coventry Stakes.

Afterwards, O’Brien went on the record saying that he has always been Ballydoyle’s number-one two-year-old since February and will likely be trained as a Guineas horse.

Following the talk of a potential Classic winner in the making, the St James’s Palace Stakes saw the British and Irish Guineas winners, Chaldean and Paddington, take each other on for the first time, with the latter decisively coming out on top, handing O’Brien a ninth victory in the one-mile contest.

However, it wasn’t just Ireland’s top Flat trainer that took all the spotlight as his jumps counterpart, Willie Mullins, closed out day one with a win in the Copper Horse Handicap thanks to Vauban, the 2021 Cheltenham Festival winner.

Aspirations are high for the Rich Ricci-owned five-year-old as he shot into 8/1 favouritism for the Melbourne Cup in November, a target that has been on the agenda for over two years.

Day 2 – Glorious for the Gosdens 

Day two of Royal Ascot saw the team of John & Thady Gosden land their first victories of the meeting in two of the feature races on the seven-race card.

The first of which came in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes and, in what was a surprise, the spoils went the way of Mostahdaf under Jim Crowley for Shadwell Estate.

Visually, the five-year-old’s victory was one of the best performances of the week to beat Adayar, a former Derby winner, Bay Bridge, the current Champion Stakes holder, and Luxembourg, last month’s Tattersalls Gold Cup victor.

He is likely to head to the Juddmonte International in August at York.

Elsewhere, his younger stablemate Gregory could have hopes of a Classic later on in the season after his Queen’s Vase victory.

The Golden Horn colt gave Frankie Dettori his first, of four, Royal Ascot 2023 wins and is set be aimed for the St Leger at Doncaster in September via a potential trip to the Goodwood Cup, a route that yard’s legendary Stradivarius took in 2017.

Day 3 – Frankie’s Golden day 

Even the scriptwriters would have been unable to produce something this special in the Gold Cup.

On his final start in the highlight race of the five days, Dettori produced a beautiful ride through the field to land the Gold Cup with Courage Mon Ami.

The King of Ascot appropriately celebrated the success with his traditional flying dismount, a victory that came an hour after King Charles III and Queen Camilla collected the King George V Stakes trophy thanks to their poignant win with Desert Hero.

Going off at a starting price of 18/1, the three-year-old colt by Sea The Stars, bred by the late Queen Elizabeth II, raised the roof at the Berkshire-based track before it was later blasted off again by Dettori’s brilliant victory.

Day 4 – The tremendous Tahiyra  

Something that wasn’t made a secret throughout the week at the Royal meeting was the constant unpredictability from start to finish.

150/1, 80/1, and 50/1 were just some of the starting prices seen, however, one favourite who duly obliged impressively was Tahiyra in the Coronation Stakes.

Despite the eye-catching run of Remarquee in second, Dermot Weld’s Irish Guineas winner was all class in Friday’s feature race.

Despite falling just short at Newmarket in early May, few three-year-old fillies take in both the English and Irish Guineas as well as the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot with such ease within the space of 47 days, but this achievement came as no trouble for Tahiyra and she looks to be an immovable object at the head of the one-mile division.

As for the three-year-old group of sprinters, fellow odds-on favourite Little Big Bear was denied a second win at the Royal meeting in the Commonwealth Cup as Julie Camacho’s Shaquille produced an incredible run to win under Oisin Murphy.

Having reared up in the stalls as the gates opened, the Charm Spirit colt gave five lengths away at the start and still won by a length and a quarter, causing his price to collapse to 5/2 for the July Cup at Newmarket next month.

Day 5 – Highlight win for Hills 

And on the final day of a brilliant Royal Ascot, William Hill ambassador Charlie Hills landed a marquee success in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes with stable stalwart Khaadem.

The seven-year-old’s starting price of 80/1 made him the biggest-priced winner in the history of the six-furlong Group 1 race, a full 12 months on from unseating his rider in the 2022 King’s Stand Stakes and running riderless alongside the winner, Nature Strip, across the line.

Khaadem joins stable legend Baattash as Group 1-winning sprinters for the Lambourn-based yard.

Later on, Pyledriver, a horse that has claimed the hearts of the racing community, made his return to the track a winning one in the Hardwicke Stakes for William Muir & Chris Grassick.

Having been off the track for 336 days since his incredible King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes win over the same course and distance, he was very keen in the early stages of the race and still had enough to pull away from West Wind Blows at the finish.

He is set to return to the track next month for a defence of his King George title, a race he is 5/1 for.

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