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52.
Danehill Dominates Royal Ascot Opener
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21/06/2002 |
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Royal Ascot started in a blaze of glory for champion sire Danehill when his crack colts Rock Of Gibralater and Landseer filled the quinella in the opening Group One race of the three-day festival on Tuesday.
Rock Of Gibraltar reaffirmed his rating as the best three-year-old in Europe up to 10 furlongs with an easy win in the G1 St James' Palace Stakes over one mile.
Rock of Gibraltar, starting an odds on favourite, has now equlled the feat of another Aiden O'Brien champion Giant's Causeway by winning five consecutive Group One races.
He is out of the stakes-placed Be My Guest mare Offshore Boom, a half sister to stakes winners Outside Pressure and Modern Comfort. She is also the dam of Turkish stakes winner D’Articleshore.
Rock of Gibraltar, raced by Sir Alex Ferguson in partnership with Coolmore’s Sue Magnier, has now won eight of his 10 starts.
His G1 winning sequence started last year with his victories in the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket and the Grand Criterium at Longchamp and has continued this year thgrough the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and the Irish 2000 Guineas at The Curragh.. He has also won the G2 Gimcrack Stakes at York and G3 Railway Stakes at The Curragh.
Ferguson secured a stake in Rock Of Gibraltar after he had run an unlucky fourth in the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot 12 months ago. He has now won seven of his eight starts in Ferguson's colours.
Rock Of Gibraltar’s Royal Ascot victory made him only the second colt since Right Tack in 1969 to win the 2000 Guineas, Irish 2000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes.
One more win at the highest level will emulate the revered Mill Reef, the only horse to win six successive G1 races since the European Pattern system was introduced in 1971.
It was a sweet result for champion jockey Michael Kinane as he decided to partner Rock Of Gibraltar over Landseer, making up for his wrong choice in the English Derby when he elected to ride
Hawk Wing over stablemate and eventual winner High Chaparral (John Murtagh).
Kinane had ridden the "Rock" in all of his starts prior to last month's 2000 Guineas at Newmarket but missed the winning mount in that classic due to a suspension.
He was back aboard the colt for his victory in the Irish 2000 Guineas but still had a choice to make after also riding Landseer in his last start win in the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains (French 2000 Guineas). Murtagh took the mount on Landseer.
O'Brien's all-conquering Ballydoyle stable also struck in the G3 Coventry Stakes with his Storm Cat colt Statue Of Liberty, a $US1.3 million half brother to US champion Lemon Drop Kid.
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