Royal Ascot: William Haggas ready to impress for the Queen at horse racing spectacle
RESPONSIBILITIES do not come any greater when you train a runner at Royal Ascot for the Queen and William Haggas is not admitting the pressure but hopes to better his past performances for Her Majesty this week.
“I've had no luck for her at Royal Ascot yet,” said Haggas.
“But to try and win a race there would be big stuff for us and we are trying hard to do so.”
Haggas will saddle Seniority in the Royal Hunt Cup for the Queen, the race that she celebrated the first of her 23 winners at the meeting with Choir Boy back in 1953.
The Newmarket trainer also runs Magnetic Charm in the Coronation Stakes, a race she has also won in the past with Aiming High, ridden by Lester Piggott, Haggas’s father-in-law.
“We lost one of her horses (Guy Fawkes) a couple years ago at the meeting, which was dreadful,” revealed Haggas.
“I can only imagine how Michael (Stoute) felt winning the Ascot Gold Cup for Her Majesty with Estimate (2013) – what a moment.”
Reflecting on the prospects of giving the host of the meeting her first winner since Dartmouth in the 2016 Hardwicke Stakes, Haggas added: “Seniority did not enjoy his time in Dubai, like us.
“But he did run well at Epsom recently and Ryan Moore is keen to ride him in the Hunt Cup.
“Magnetic Charm beat a smart one of John Gosden’s (Twist “N’ Shake) at York. She’s fit and well.”
The Queen is 5-2 with Ladbrokes to celebrate a Royal Ascot winner.
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Royal Ascot prize fund for every race
TUESDAY:
Queen Anne Stakes £600,000
Coventry Stakes £150,000
King’s Stand Stakes £500,000
St James’s Palace Stakes £500,000
Ascot Stakes £90000
Wolferton Stakes £100,000
WEDNESDAY:
Queen Mary Stakes £110,000
Queen’s Vase £225,000
Duke of Cambridge Stakes £175,000
Prince of Wales’s Stakes £750,000
Royal Hunt Cup £175000
Jersey Stakes £90,000
THURSDAY:
Norfolk Stakes £100,000
Hampton Court Stakes £90,000
Ribblesdale Stakes £200,000
Gold Cup £500,000
Britannia Stakes £120000
King George V Stakes £90000
FRIDAY:
Albany Stakes £90,000
King Edward VII Stakes £225,000
Commonwealth Cup £500,000
Coronation Stakes £500,000
Sandringham Stakes £90000
Duke of Edinburgh Stakes £90000
SATURDAY:
Chesham Stakes £90,000
Hardwicke Stakes £225,000
Windsor Castle Stakes £90,000
Diamond Jubilee Stakes £600,000
Wokingham Stakes £175000
Queen Alexandra Stakes £90000