Dermot Weld’s Tahiyra is odds-on to supply her trainer with a notable Royal Ascot landmark on Friday.
It is 50 years since the Curragh maestro saddled Klairvimy to win the King Edward VII Stakes, the first of his 17 winners overall at the famed meeting.
The last of them was in 2015 when the late Pat Smullen guided Free Eagle to Prince of Wales’s success although there’s widespread expectation the gap will get bridged by Tahiyra in the featured Coronation Stakes.
A much-anticipated clash of the Guineas winners was ruled out when the Newmarket winner Mawj suffered a setback earlier this week.
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It leaves Tahiyra, runner-up to Mawj at Newmarket, and subsequently an impressive winner of the Irish 1,000 Guineas, with what appears to be a gilt-edged Group One opportunity.
The seven-runner race also appears so ‘green’ it might have been run at the Curragh.
Aidan O’Brien’s Meditate and Jim Bolger’s Comhra filled the frame behind Tahiyra in the Guineas while Jessica Harrington’s Sounds Of Heaven also takes her chance.
Of an outgunned looking home trio, Queen For You, runner up to Sounds Of Heaven at York last time, looks best.
All four Irish trainers have tasted Coronation success before although Weld’s 1978 victory with Sutton Place was a decade before the race was given top-flight status.
In contrast to Weld, Tahiyra’s jockey Chris Hayes is trying to secure a first Royal Ascot victory.
Friday’s other Group One is the Commonwealth Cup and features another Irish favourite in Little Big Bear.
Last season’s champion two-year-old has been quickly dropped back to sprinting after a fruitless tilt at the 2,000 Guineas and impressed with a prep’ victory at Haydock.
Another horse that failed to fire in the Guineas is Sakheer who could emerge as Little Big Bear’s biggest threat.
O’Brien’s Continuous flopped in the French Derby and faces a major task in the King Edward against a field that includes the Epsom runner-up King Of Steel.
There is a pair of Ballydoyle runners in the Sandringham Handicap and although Ryan Moore’s mount Jackie Oh ran well behind Tahiyra last time the progressive Unless looks to hold decent claims too with Wayne Lordan riding at 8.8.
Matrika’s laid-back attitude at home didn’t prevent her making a winning debut at the Curragh. Such a ‘Zen’ attitude to life could backfire against Soprano & Co in the Albany, however.
