Saturday was my first (and probably last) visit to the 'new' Ascot. The architects scored nought out of ten for design and went instantly on my boycott list because the ordinary Grandstand punter cannot stand nearer than 100 yards from the winning post. You needed to pay double for the Premier enclosure for that privilege. I suppose at the Royal racecourse one should expect that sort of elitism. The French would be in revolt! All of the steps up and down from the grandstand lawn were totally disorganised. After each race it took an eternity to get up the steps because nobody had thought to have a one-way system with one side of the steps to go up and the other to go down, so people coming down the steps with three pints impeded the majority trying to go back up. RFC should pay for all the obese chavs from my local council estate to go to Ascot as a day going up and down all the steps for the parade ring and the lawns might help them shed a few pounds if they didn't feed them any pies. The King George's tragic conclusion was certainly not the showcase that the sport wanted and the tactic of not allowing Debussy to set a good pace may have been intended by the Godolphin team to inconvenince the favourite by causing the race to be more like a ten furlong event, where Rewilding had course and distance form. William Buick found himself reluctantly in front on Nathaniel, St Nicholas Abbey ran too freely and Workforce did not really settle either. In the straight, Workforce did not help his cause by taking the scenic route to the winning post but it is hard to imagine that he would have overhauled the winner, who would appear to be the best middle distance three-year-old in Europe on current evidence. I have to wonder whether Workforce just does not like Ascot given the results of his two visits - beaten favourite 2010/11. The St Nicholas Abbey bubble was well and truly burst as I did not see any realistic excuse for his lacklustre performance other than the race not being a truly run twelve furlongs. They should have run Seville. As it seems that Nathaniel is very adaptable with regard to where he is placed in a race, he must now be a live contender for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, which surely means that connections will be forgoing a visit to Town Moor for the final Classic. I wonder if Gosden will be tempted to go to the Prix Niel to take on Pour Moi and Meandre in advance as it is a long lay-off otherwise. I should have gone to York instead of Ascot as I missed three winners on their card - Tim Easterby's hat-trick seeking Last Bid in the opener, Hoof It in the sprint handicap and Twice Over in the big race (how did he not go off favourite?). At Ascot I left Lightning Cloud alone in the opener and Kevin Ryan's other runner won it. I would not touch odds-on Russelliana and she never went a yard in the Princess Margaret. I left Albaasil alone in the three-year-old handicap after a paddock inspection and I would not back the last winner Aiken because 15/8 was too short.
Good thread. Just for info. Gosden told the Telegraph that he will give Nathaniel some nice runs on the gallops rarher than put him in the "chaos" of an Arc trial.
