Two years and one very long and costly suspension after claiming the top jockey’s prize at the 2021 Royal meeting, Oisin Murphy was back in the winner’s enclosure here after one of the more remarkable Group One-winning performances of recent years.
Shaquille, Murphy’s partner in the Commonwealth Cup, gave his field a five-length advantage with a slow start and then pulled for his head through the first quarter-mile, but Julie Camacho’s colt still had enough left at the business end to overhaul Little Big Bear, the odds-on favourite ridden by Ryan Moore, in the last half-furlong.
It was a hugely impressive performance by both horse and rider, as Murphy persuaded a colt who is clearly as headstrong as he is talented to settle, and then patiently worked his way into the race.
Shaquille’s victory also came in a race that Murphy famously lost in the stewards’ room after crossing the line in front on Dragon Symbol two years ago.
“As the stalls opened, Shaquille went up into the air, and he took his time coming back down to the ground,” Murphy said. “It’s very hard to do that in a 1,200m [six-furlong] race and win.
“I thought the race was almost over. You just have to take a deep breath and then try to get on to the back of them smoothly. You just have to hope they’ve gone too fast and will slow down at the end.
“I got to the back of Ryan quite easily without having to go for him, but I had to sustain an effort from quite a long way out. It really was a tremendous task that he managed to overcome.”
If it was a significant moment for the former champion as he returned to the Royal Ascot winner’s enclosure, it was doubly so for Camacho, who runs a relatively small family operation in Malton, North Yorkshire, as she secured a first Group One success in a race full of runners from Flat racing’s powerhouse stables.
Ayr
1.15 Nighteyes 1.50 Showalong 2.24 Run Cmc 2.59 Kihavah 3.34 Nymphadora 4.14 Novak 4.54 Jkr Cobbler
Newmarket
1.32 Ancient Wisdom 2.07 Sophia’s Starlight 2.42 Imperial Emperor 3.17 Single 3.52 Wilde And Dandy 4.32 Cubanista 5.09 The Green Man
Redcar
1.37 Brave Empire 2.12 Pound Off You 2.47 Hidden Code 3.22 Mudamer 4.02 Lakota Blue 4.38 Rooska 5.13 Oneforsue
Perth
1.42 Chasing Chances 2.17 Petrastar 2.52 Gamigin 3.27 Captain Ivan 4.07 Definite Plan 4.42 Garde Des Champs 5.17 Pammi
Royal Ascot
2.30 La Guarida 3.05 Enfjaar 3.40 Highfield Princess 4.20 Hukum 5.00 Apollo One (nap) 5.35 Lion Of War (nb) 6.10 Run For Oscar
Lingfield Park
5.50 Outrace 6.20 Later Darling 6.50 Dovena 7.20 Drink Dry 7.50 Intoxicata 8.20 Swiss Star 8.50 Addie Boo Boo
Haydock Park
6.00 Chronograph 6.35 May Blossom 7.10 Gray’s Inn 7.40 Aqwaam 8.10 Pearl Eye 8.40 Young Fire
“I thought: ‘Well that’s it, he’s blown his chance,’” Camacho said. “When he started to run, I thought: ‘He’s going to be placed,’ and that he would run a big race. But then I thought: ‘Oh my God, he’s going to win.’
“It’s massive. We never thought we would train a Group One winner, not at Royal Ascot anyway, and for Martin [Hughes, Shaquille’s co-owner], it’s massive. He bred him. We’ve got his mother at home, his siblings, and Dad [former trainer Maurice Camacho] looks after the stud, so I’m sure he was screaming at home.”
Little Big Bear, who set off at 10-11, was the second odds-on favourite of this year’s meeting and the second to be beaten, after Al Asifah’s defeat in the Ribblesdale on Thursday. Tahiyra, though, got the heavy hitters at least some of their money back in the Coronation Stakes later on the card, coming with a strong run in the final two furlongs to beat Remarquee by a length with Sounds Of Heaven a head away in third.
The Irish 1,000 Guineas winner set off at 8-13 and, though the stewards inquired into possible interference after she drifted to the fair rail in the closing stages, it was a straightforward decision to allow the result to stand.
Dermot Weld, Tahiyra’s trainer, saddled his first winner at Royal Ascot half a century ago, when Klairvimy took the King Edward VII Stakes, and now has 18 at the meeting in all.
“The plan was always to give her a nice holiday,” Weld said of Tahiyra’s post-Ascot schedule. “She’s had a very busy spring and early summer and we’ll look at a programme for her in the autumn.
“Her sister [Tarnawa] was unbelievably tough and stayed really well, won the Breeders’ Cup Turf [in 2020] and two very good Group Ones in France for me and was just beat a neck in the [2021] Arc when the ground was too dead for her on the day.
“A brilliant racemare, her sister, and this one is equally as good, but they are different. This one has more pace.”
