Ascot specialist Docklands provides Harry Eustace with Group 1 glory. (Megan Coggin)
Royal Ascot Release
ASCOT, England—Harry Eustace is now a Group 1-winning trainer after Docklands (14/1) edged out 5/2 favourite Rosallion in a thrilling finish to the G1 Queen Anne Stakes.
Ascot specialist Docklands, who finished second in the meeting’s curtain-raiser 12 months ago and won the Britannia Stakes in 2023, challenged on the far side of the 10 runners, with Rosallion coming through on the near side.
Despite jockey Mark Zahra dropping his whip entering the final furlong, Docklands found plenty for pressure to deny Rosallion by a nose and make amends for an unlucky defeat at Epsom Downs 10 days ago.
Runner-up Rosallion, winner of the G1 St James’s Palace Stakes on this card last year, took a nice step forward from his third in the G1 Lockinge Stakes. Cairo (100/1) outran his odds in third for Alice Haynes, just edging out the unlucky Notable Speech.
Eustace said: “I have lost my voice, I am afraid; that was pretty sweet. It was tough watching, and the photo was tough. I wasn’t happy with the pace early on; Docklands did his usual thing, just stepped slow and I was cursing him to be honest, but he is just an absolute star.
“He has been an absolute legend for us and, if ever there was a track where you’d want a horse that’s a specialist, it’s here because it is the best racing. At about the furlong marker, I thought Rosallion was really coming at us, but God he was so brave that last furlong. He has been frustrating, but only because I feel he deserves to have won the odd race more than he has.
“In a curious way, he got trapped in a pocket and didn’t have a hard race at Epsom, and it probably just put him spot on. You have multiple Group 1 winners in there, Guineas winners from last year, and we’re the most exposed horse probably, but he loves the track which is a big plus.
“It sounds boring but the work and the effort that everyone at home puts into our horses, that is the reason we are here, and I can’t thank them enough. More importantly, I can’t thank Terry [Henderson] and OTI enough. They got offered a huge amount of money after he won the Britannia, but they wanted to enjoy a good racehorse and roll the dice, and thankfully it has paid off.
“That is mainly thanks to Docklands [coming back to form after global travels]. He has the most unbelievable mind and constitution. He loves being a racehorse, he loves it every single day, and he is very competitive.”
Zahra, who dropped his whip in the closing stages, said: “I was so scared about the whip rules, I thought it would just be easier to throw it away at the 200 [metres]!
“It was a very slow speed and I just crept as much as I could. I got room at the right time and Docklands burst through and kept responding, kept responding.
“Amazing, what an amazing feeling. Unbelievable. I have to thank the boys that put me on him. One of the top days of my career for sure.
“Hearing all the Aussies over the fence, even though the horse is English, you’d have thought he was Aussie by all the screams, amazing experience for unbelievable people.
“Harry has been pumping me up the whole way. This just started as a stop-off on the way to a trip to Ibiza, so to turn into a massive win like this is very special. The closer we got, the more Harry filled me with confidence, and he was right.
“Both Docklands’ runs this season have been really good. I rode him in Hong Kong with blinkers, whereas blinkers off today, and just looking at him in the field, he is a completely different horse.”
Richard Hannon said of Rosallion: “He is still a top-class miler. I thought he had it there. Well done to the winners. It was an extremely good race. He did everything for a win, you can’t ask for much more than that. He has done us proud, and we are delighted. I’ll be alright in 10 minutes! He’s beaten an awful lot of champions in that race. Hit the front, got done on the line, horrible! But nobody died and he’s run a great race.”
Cairo’s jockey Silvestre de Sousa said: “It was a good run. He is a horse who has been placed in Group races, and he deserves to be in a place like that. It was a shame there was not much of a pace on, but he ran a blinder.”
Notable Speech’s trainer Charlie Appleby said: “It is disappointing when you have a race like that, and they’ve gone the pace they have. That’s racing – I’ve seen it many times before and we will see it plenty of times going forward. From our point of view, it was a bit hard to watch. He was sat there, travelling like he was, and you knew it was going to turn into a sprint. When you have to start manoeuvring left to right and they are sprinting, you know you are losing momentum and ground.“We will put it behind us, and he has run a solid race. I take on board what William said afterwards and, if you wanted to pigeon-hole him into a trip now that he is older and stronger, then seven furlongs is his gig. I still wouldn’t walk away without taking a good strong view of the Sussex again, but we all know the City Of York Stakes is going to be one hell of a race this year.”
