By Peter Moore at Ascot Saturday 11th May 2024
The second day of Ascot’s May meeting featured the Victoria Cup, which was celebrating its 10 year anniversary.
Twenty one runners went to post, with total prize money on offer of £100,00 with the race run over 7f.
The race was won by the 7-1 shot The Wizard Of Eye under Tom Marquand, with the gelding making his first start for Newmarket trainer Charlie Fellowes.
The five year old was winless in eight previous outings over seven furlongs. Gelded since his final start for Stan Moore which was 232 days ago, defied the long lay off to get up on the line to win by a head and land the first prize of over £40,000.
In the finale of the afternoon apprentice Sorcha Woods- who rode a winner from his first ride in Britain last Thursday at Chelmsford last week on Northcliff- followed up on the Mike Murphy and Michael Keady trained Nortcliff at 20-1 in the six furlong handicap.
It was also a first turf success at the 23rd attempt for Northcliff, who was Woods first ever Ascot mount.
Kotari, made it three wins in a row after landing the opener for Gary & Josh Moore in the 1m 4f handicap.
Despite a 5 pound penalty and a step up in trip, the five year old was an impressivew winner for the Heart Of The South Racing syndicate.
Claimer Sean Dylan Bowen’s first ever ride for trainer Grant Tuer ended in success with Bellarchi taking the Class 2 fillies handicap over one mile on the Royal Hunt Cup course.
There was an upset in the Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0 % novice stakes when the well fancied Hallasan was beaten in to third place behind Reposado and the debutant Xanthe under Pat Dobbs for trainer Richard Hannon.
The only filly in the race, the two-year-old looked an exciting prospect and is expected to return to Ascot for next months Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes.
Half sister to Fort Del Oro, the filly is owned by Julie Wood, who has had horses in training with the Hannon family for over 24 years.