The highly anticipated Group I Platinum Jubilee Stakes (6f) was the centrepiece of the final day at Royal Ascot with the race producing a Dubawi quinella for Godolphin with Australian 3YO colt Artorius a late closing dead heat third with Campanelle, while Home Affairs faded to finish unplaced.
All eyes were on race favourite Home Affairs, who looked perfect in the mounting yard, but the Chris Waller trained son of I Am Invincible raced keenly for James McDonald through the first half of the race leaving nothing in the tank for the finish.
The Charlie Appleby trained Godolphin duo Naval Crown (James Doyle) and Creative Force (William Buick) hitting the line hard to take first and second with a neck between them, while Artorius grabbed third half a length further back after being held up for a run.
Naval Crown and Creative Force had filled the quinella last year at Royal Ascot in the Group III Jersey Stakes, albeit the other way around.
“William [Buick] rode in a piece of work involving the two of them the other day and he came back and said, 'Charlie, I'm going to have a job splitting them' - there really wasn't a lot between them at home,” said Charlie Appleby.
“The one thing Naval Crown had coming into this race was that he was still learning to sprint and he'd only done it once before in his life. I thought Creative Force ran a blinder from his draw.
“If it had been easy ground I'd have put Creative Force right in the mix as he's been there and done it in the top races whereas Naval Crown is just coming through the sprinting division. I don't see any reason why we won't go [to the July Cup]. We hadn't really thought much beyond this as we thought we'd be following in the Australian horses based on what happened earlier in the week.”
A Group II winner previously with the overall record of four wins and seven placings from 15 starts, Naval Crown is the first winner for stakes-winning Dansili mare Come Alive, a daughter of stakes-winner Portrayal, whose grand-dam is grand producer Truly Special.
The family features a raft of Black Type horses including Group I winners Ceruluean Sky and Moonstone as well as Aussie bred G1 winners Wellington and Colette.
Naval Crown is the 50th Group I winner for Darley’s champion sire Dubawi, who finishes Royal Ascot as the most successful sire this year with five winners over the five days – Naval Crown (G1), Coroebus (G1), Eldar Eldarov (G2), Dubai Future (Listed) and Secret State.
At age 20, Dubawi has built an imposing record at stud and did shuttle to Australian for three of his first four seasons (missing 2007 due to EI) standing at $33,000 the first two years and then just $16,500 in the third.
His overall stats are 75.4% winner to runner and 15.5% stakes-winner to runner with 231 stakes-winners worldwide to his credit.
Interestingly his stats on just those three Australian bred crops at the start of his career are also impressive with 79.2% winner to runner and 11.7% SW to runner with six Group I winners, so Aussie breeders certainly got a lot of bang for their buck from a stallion that now stands at a fee of 250,000 pounds.
Darley will stand two Group I winning sons of Dubawi in Australia this spring in Too Darn Hot (GB) and Ghaiyyath (IRE).
