The Group I Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (6f) was the highlight on the final day of Royal Ascot and for a few strides there it looked as though Joliestar was the winner, but it’s a long way to the post.
Joliestar enjoyed a great run in transit for James McDonald and hit the front fleetingly before being claimed in the last few strides by Japanese sprinter Satono Reve and the ultimate winner Almeraq.
The margins were a nose and a short head with Joliestar gallant in defeat and of the also rans , Golden Rose winner Lake Forest was a close fifth, while Overpass showed his customary pace, but faded out over the final furlong to finish unplaced.
Chris Waller was proud Joliestar had produced her best, even though she was beaten in a thriller.
“I'm just delighted that Joliestar turned up. She performed very well and fought out a great finish, which was typical of the week. It was important coming into the race to make sure that she brought her Australian form here and stood it up, and she really did that,” said Waller.
“I thought we had to ask her a little bit earlier than I'd have liked. It would have been nice to have put a length on them, so I knew it was going to be tough the last 400 metres. She was brave, and it was literally just the last 20 or 30 yards. It was a great run.”
The winner Almeraq is a lightly raced four year-old stallion by Dark Angel trained by William Haggas and ridden by Tom Marquand.
A homebred for Shadwell, Almeraq was involved in a race fall at York last September and had a long time off after that to recover.
He made a winning reappearance when taking out a Listed race at Salisbury last month and was stepping up sharply in grade for this assignment with punters sending him out at 25-1.
“He took a long time to come back and it's been gently, gently this spring. He won nicely at Salisbury, but this is a completely different jump in class and he's managed to cope with it,” said Haggas.
“He's a beautiful horse, we've always loved him, a big, strong, powerful horse, and I think he'll get better, because he's pretty lightly raced.
“He was pretty shook up after York. It's quite hard to fall in a race like that at speed, and for a young horse, going at speed, it was difficult, but we gave him a lot of time. There was no need to get him ready for the autumn, and this has proved it and now it's onwards and upwards.”
Almeraq has the overall record of four wins and two seconds from seven starts with his only unplaced run when he fell.
It was Tom Marquand’s first ride on Almeraq with Jim Crowley doing much of the work on the horse previously and he was aboard him when he came down last year.
Almeraq is the best of two winners from Manaajim, an unraced half-sister by Muhaarar to Group I winning sprinter Fairyland and Group winning mare Now or Later, who came to Australia winning the Group II VRC Blazer Stakes.
She is now at stud here with Yulong and is due to foal to Lucky Vega (IRE) this spring.
It’s a high class European speed family with third dam Land of Dreams a brilliant Group winning sprinter and dam of 2011 Champion Sprinter Dream Ahead, who shuttled to Australia for seven seasons.
Almeraq is the 18th Group I winner for Dark Angel, who is having a growing influence in Australia through his son Harry Angel (IRE), while his Champion Miler Charyn (IRE) is an exciting new addition for Cambridge Stud in New Zealand this spring.
