By Elaine Belval
I would argue that the week’s racing at England’s Royal Ascot meeting is the best week of racing in the world. The highlight of Saturday’s card was the G1 Golden Jubilee S. at six furlongs.
Royal Ascot is perfectly situated on the racing calender. At the end of June, the Southern Hemisphere racing season is wrapping up. Several years ago, Australian invaders decided to take on the Royal Ascot challenge. In 2003, Australian sprinter Choisir shocked the English by winning both the then-G2 but now G1 King’s Stand S. at five furlongs in the Golden Jubilee S. within the five-day Royal Ascot meeting. Choisir had won the G1 5-furlong Lightning S. in February before going to Ascot where he defeated such horses as Airwave, Acclamation and Oasis Dream.
This past Saturday, Choisir’s son Starspangledbanner under jockey Johnny Murtagh led from start to finish in his victory in the Golden Jubilee. The Racing Post wrote the Golden Jubilee was “arguably the classiest sprint ever run in this country.” Among the defeated, G1 Golden Shaheen winner Kinsale King, 2009 G1 July Cup winner Fleeting Spirit, 2009 Prix de la Foret winner Varenar, and multiple G1 winner Marchand d’Or.
In Australia, Starspangledbanner won the G1 Caulfied Guineas and the G1 Oakleigh Plate in February. He was bred by Emily Krstina and raced by a syndicate in Australia before he was purchased by Coolmore, and is now trained by Aiden O’Brien, who had targeted this very race from the time Coolmore paid A$10 million for him.
Starspangledbanner is the third foal of the stakes-placed Gold Anthem, a daughter of Made of Gold (himself the son of Green Forest). Her first foal is the stakes-placed Gold Chant. Under his third dam is the another G1 Royal Ascot Australian conqueror in Haradasun, winner of the Queen Anne S. in 2008 and another Coolmore sire in Australia.
Starspangledbanner’s sire Choisir has 25 SWs, including 12 Group winners, but Starspangledbanner is his first G1 winner. Choisir sires precocious (almost half of his SWs are 2YO SWs) sprinters (all but one of his progeny’s stakes wins comes under nine furlongs).
Choisir stands at Coolmore Australia for a 2010 fee of A$35,750.
As a final note, in 2008, Werk Thoroughbred Consultants started offering our “Best of Sale” for major Australian sales. Starspangledbanner sold at the 2008 William Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale for $120,000. He was a 1-Star Best of Sale.
Click here to see video of Starspangledbanner’s Golden Jubilee, as well as his sire’s performance in the same race from 2003.
(Elaine Belval is senior pedigree analyst at WTC.)