More globetrotters will call for glory at Royal Ascot

Ryan Moore rode to one of his nine wins aboard Acapulco for American trainer Wesley Ward in the Queen Mary Stakes. Matthew Childs / Reuters

If there was one aspect to last week’s Royal Ascot meeting that stands out more than the others, it is that British horses were given a serious run for their money by the international brigade.

Ryan Moore’s record-breaking performance of securing nine wins across the 30 races to seal the top jockey award was extraordinary, but with 13 victories there have never been more winners trained outside of Britain than there were last week.

This tally was achieved on the back of the previous record set just two years ago, when undefeated Australian sprinter Black Caviar was one of 11 winners trained outside of Britain.

Wesley Ward was the poster boy for the international raiders with Acapulco’s breathtaking win in the Queen Mary Stakes on Wednesday and Undrafted’s last-to-first success in the Diamond Jubilee taking his Royal Ascot tally to six wins.

The most eyebrow-raising American runner was Cyclogenisis, who was supplemented for the inaugural Commonwealth Cup on Friday but finished a costly 14th of the 18 runners behind Muhaarar.

Graham Motion’s Miss Temple City narrowly missed out, when two lengths fourth, to French filly Ervedya in the Coronation Stakes on the same day. The £21,724 (Dh126,657) prize money would have gone some way to covering expenses.

After both Acapulco and Undrafted had won, Ward suggested that the floodgates to further American participation at the meeting would open and to expect the bigger names in American horse racing at the royal meeting.

Motion, who has won the Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup, backed up his assertion.

“The more people who see it is feasible, the more incentive they will have to do it,” Motion said. “Not a single person in the ownership group of Miss Temple City regretted it.

“I just wish we had come away with a piece of it, because to be placed in a European Group 1 would have been perfect. I never jump up and down about being fourth in a Group 1, but that is about as close as it gets.

“We won’t travel her again this year but there is no reason to not come back next year with her and possibly stay on a little longer. We’ll keep trying and I’ll be on the look out for other horses to do it with, too.”

Motion learnt numerous lessons when he sent over Animal Kingdom to finish 11th in the Queen Anne Stakes two seasons ago.

Whereas Animal Kingdom came straight from his Dubai World Cup win, Motion said that coming virtually straight off the plane suits him better. It is the approach that all American trainers adopt when they go to Dubai, as it allows one piece of proper work before the big race.

“It is the little intricacies that make the difference,” Motion said. “For instance, I am now very comfortable with the gallops at Kingsdown in Lambourn and because Wesley was bringing over so many it meant we could get a direct flight, instead of going via Amsterdam.”

It is often assumed that Ward acted as the pathfinder in 2009 when Strike The Tiger became the first US-trained winner at Royal Ascot and Jealous Again won the Queen Mary Stakes a day later.

He was simply the first one to succeed.

Franck Mourier saddled Parisienne to 11th place in the 2003 Coventry Stakes and America America to eighth in the Queen Mary Stakes.

In the same year Randy Morse sent out Morluc to be 17th in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes.

Only a year later Eoin Harty, who trains for Godolphin in the US, brought over Lydgate, who was ninth in the King’s Stand Stakes, and, in 2005, Jeff Mullins’s Mighty Beau ran in both of the Group 1 sprints without ­success.

What Ward’s landmark victories did achieve was to galvanise others.

In 2010 Ward was joined by Kenny McPeek and Carl O’Callaghan, and the three trainers saddled five horses between them.

A year after that it was multiple Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher who tried and failed and then 12 months later Chad Brown turned up to go home empty-handed.

American horses have won Group 1 races in Europe before – Fourstars AllStar won the 1992 Irish 2,000 Guineas for Leo O’Brien, while Count Reigh won the 1929 Coronation Cup at Epsom, but now that Undrafted has become the third there could be many more.

“This will do it, it will. They will be here now,” Ward said. “I get a lot of people calling me and asking me what to do. You will see them coming and hopefully if they do come they don’t beat me.”

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