Royal Ascot 2011- Veiled wins Ascot Stakes, Kieren Fallon misses out, Jockey Eddie Ahern replaces
The fifth race of day one of the Royal Ascot, the Ascot Stakes had been talked about before it even began because Kieren Fallon’s neck injury had made him unfit to ride Veiled in the race.
He jarred his neck in the morning and was prescribed physiotherapy to keep his condition from worsening, while Eddie Ahern rode Veiled in his place.
Ascot Stakes was the first handicap race of the event, where horses have to run with a certain weight attached to them that they have to carry. As usual it was run over a distance of 5 furlongs.
While the betting odds showed 7/2 favourite Zigato, 16/1 Ermyn Lodge, 50/1 Phoenix Flight and 7/2 Veiled, were likely winners too. Last year’s chestnut winner, Junior was initially supposed to defend his title but later dropped out, easing the way for the
rest of the lot.
However, contrary to all predictions, Zigato stood fourth. And despite Fallon’s injury, Ahern lead Veiled to a glorious victory for trainer, Nicky Henderson. While the others slipped
away Veiled and Ermyn battled it out for victory.
Veiled won the neck-to-neck race strongly by 2 ¾ lengths. Phoenix Flight, who was a little behind, finished third, while favourite, Zigato, was a disappointing fourth position.
Winning trainer, Nicky Henderson, said of Veiled:
“She was always travelling well. She was bound to like the trip, she was very impressive over two and a half at Cheltenham but we had to bring her back to a mile and six at Newmarket to move her up the handicap to make sure she got in today”.
Last-minute replacement jockey, Eddie Ahern, said after the victory:
“I thought beforehand we had a really big chance but the only thing I was worried about was on the way out everyone was saying 'come on Fallon'”.
One wonders how Fallon must have felt, considering he could have won his third Ascot Stakes in a span of eleven years.
Even before the race, analysts were sure of Veiled’s strength and an enthusiastic blogger said just hours before the race:
“Veiled is a powerful stayer who will take some beating judged on his recent victory over 1m 6f at Newmarket”.
The strangest thing about this race perhaps was the fact that there was a sort of trend to it, such as all of the ten preceding winners had won a handicap prior to their win. Strangely enough Veiled seemed to fall in line with most of the other trends of
previous winners.
Last year’s winner has in the past twelve months achieved immense success, and is in good form. Whether or not this year’s winner, Veiled, will follow suit is yet to be seen, but from Ascot Stakes victory it looks likely.
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