A day to remember at Royal Ascot Trials day!

Thu 02 May 2019

VENTURA REBEL you star!

We came into the 2-year-old Ascot Trials Conditions race having won on debut at Thirsk. His trainer Richard Fahey has been telling us and his owners about his impressive work at home and that we should go for this race. Wesley Ward’s Lady Pauline and Godolphin’s 600k stoutly bred colt were the top two in the betting, with us priced at 20/1. No one told Ventura Rebel this though and he ran a similar race to that at Thirsk, doing his best work in the final furlong to pass Lady Pauline and win the 5f contest by a length, with ears pricked. Paul then had trouble pulling him up!

Congratulations to his owners on a fantastic win and thank you to Paul Hanagan for such a cool ride! It really is hats off to Richard Fahey, as for the second year running, we have our Royal Ascot Coventry Stakes horse, as the plan would be for him to go straight there.

He became our 20th winner of 2019 and we are delighted to see that Timeform have placed him at the top of the 2yo rankings. Having given him a rating of 98 this morning, they have this afternoon increased that to a rating of 101p. See the gallery of images, where you can also read that the Racing Post call us "giant killers" - we'll take that!

What a fantastic run by RAYMOND TUSK in the Group 3 Sagaro Stakes on the same card.
2nd under a penalty to the 2018 Derby runner-up Dee Ex Bee, he became our second candidate for Royal Ascot from the day and according to Timeform, it was a career best run. He is entered in the Gold Cup at the Royal meeting and there are plenty of other options for him in the calendar, now that he has proved he stays 2 miles.

We had a simply marvellous day at Ascot and must thank them for their (as ever) superb welcome and hospitality, taking both our syndicates in for champagne and being very generous with badges.

Read the story of both races here and watch the replays here: https://www.sportinglife.com/racing/news/ventura-proves-ascot-ace-for-fahey/165905