ERIC RIBAUD celebrated his ‘best’ winner as Royal Ascot’s international flavour continued following French raider Vision D’Etat’s thrilling success in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes.
Australian speedster Scenic Blast set the tone for the meeting with Tuesday’s victory in the King’s Stand Stakes
US trainer Wesley Ward gave the Americans a first Royal winner with Strike The Tiger’s 33-1 success later on Tuesday and made it two out of two with a scintillating victory of the well-backed Jealous Again in yesterday’s Queen Mary Stakes.
While the Irish weighed in with Mastercraftsman’s battling St James’s Palace Stakes win.
But it was Vision D’Etat’s success in the feature that was the highlight of the second day of the Royal meeting. Last year’s French Derby hero became the second horse to cross the Channel and plunder the Group One prize in the last three years following Andre Fabre’s Manduro success in 2007.
Under Olivier Peslier, who was winning his second Prince Of Wales’s, the four-year-old came from last to first to beat favourite Tartan Bearer and fellow French raider Never On Sunday in a superb finish.
The winner is 12-1 third favourite with Ladbrokes and Coral for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, in which he finished fifth to Zarkava last year.
Libaud said: “Of all the winners I’ve had in the world this is the best one. I knew it was going to be difficult from last place but I could see the horse was going well and Olivier had told me the straight at Ascot is long, so I was quietly confident. This is the nicest and best victory I’ve ever achieved.
“The Arc was always going to be his target this year and that is where he will go. He will have a break first and then go for a prep race in the Prix Foy.
“He is a better horse this year and has grown into himself.
“The crop this year doesn’t look as good and he must go to the Arc with a very good chance.”
Stoute is still looking for his first win in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes and may step Tartan Bearer up to a mile and a half back at Ascot in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes next month and in the Arc. Tartan Bearer is 10-1 with William Hill for the King George and 16-1 generally for the Arc. Stoute said: “He ran well and I’m making no excuses. I think a better pace would have suited all of them. He’s widely entered but let’s wait and see.”
Meanwhile, American trainer Ward, who brought a team of five sprinters across the Atlantic, has won two out of two.
Bursting out of the stalls under John Velasquez, the home-trained runners couldn’t cope with the blistering speed of Jealous Again, who was backed into 13-2 from big double figures odds earlier in the morning, to win by five lengths.
Ward, who has big chances of more success with Yagaroo in today’s Norfolk Stakes and Aegaen in tomorrow’s Albany Stakes, said: “In America we train for speed and the reason I came over here was I thought the others in the race are trained to go on for next year. I just thought I’d get a jump on the other trainers over here. Your horses are bred to go longer and ours are bred for speed and it worked out today.”
