Shaquille provides Camacho with firsts all round in Commonwealth Cup
A mishap when leaving the stalls did not prevent Shaquille (Charm Spirit) becoming the first Group 1 winner for his trainer Julie Camacho, as he stormed to success in the Commonwealth Cup (Gr 1, 6f) at Royal Ascot yesterday.
In providing jockey Oisin Murphy with a first win in the race, which was only introduced to the royal meeting in 2015, the colt reared leaving the gates leaving him with plenty of ground to make up on the odds-on favourite, and eventual runner-up, Little Big Bear (No Nay Never).
However, a calm Murphy nursed his mount into the contest and the pair made good headway on the far side of a 12-strong field entering the final two furlongs. Asking for a full effort from the son of Charm Spirit (Invincible Spirit), Shaquille kept finding under pressure with a sustained run inside the final furlong, which saw him fend off the Aidan O’Brien-trained challenger by one and a quarter lengths.
“The race is almost over [after the slow start], and you just have to take a deep breath and then try to get onto the back of them [the other runners] smoothly. You just have to hope they’ve gone too fast and will slow down at the end,” Murphy said.
“He’s a tough, top-class animal. It’s very hard to win any race doing what he did and so to do it in a Group 1 and to beat the likes of Little Big Bear is an astounding performance.
“I feel for James Doyle. If Noble Style had not run [Shaquille] was going to be his ride. I came in for a spare ride, but thank you to James for telling me about the horse.”
Yesterday’s success was also a first Royal Ascot winner for Camacho, who trains out of her Norton-based yard in North Yorkshire.
“It’s massive,” Camacho said. “We never thought we would train a Group 1 winner, not at Royal Ascot anyway and for Martin [Hughes, part-owner and breeder] it’s massive. He bred him, we’ve got his mother at home, his siblings, Dad looks after the stud so I’m sure he was screaming at home.”
“When he started to run, I thought, ‘he’s going to be placed’ and that he would run a big race, but then I thought ‘oh my God, he’s going to win’. I’m a bit speechless.”
Despite suffering defeat, Little Big Bear has now won a Group 2 and finished runner-up in two starts back at six furlongs, having finished unplaced when stepped up to a mile in the English 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) first time out, and will now head for the July Cup (Gr 1, 6f) at Newmarket on July 15.
“Delighted with the run,” O’Brien said. “He ran very well. I think he is a sprinter, and we will be looking forward to the July Cup.”
The front two finished a further three-quarters of a length ahead of the third-placed Swingalong (Showcasing), who had made most of the running in the six-furlong event and clung on bravely from Ocean Quest (Sioux Nation) to remain in the placings.
“It was a fantastic run, Clifford [Lee, jockey] gave her a great ride. I knew the run in France [French 1,000 Guineas] was wrong, she did not stay the mile, but equally she would not have won over six furlongs that day,” Swingalong’s trainer Karl Burke said.
“We were always targeting this race, she has been working real well. She will stay another half furlong, so we are thinking of the Prix Maurice de Gheest. We are very happy with her, she is a Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed now.”
Now an impressive five-from-five at this trip, Shaquille (3 c Charm Spirit – Magic by Galileo) is the best of three foals out of the unraced Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) mare Magic, herself a sister to French Listed winner Birch Grove.