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| Sumita Pawar |
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The Coolmore partnership, which includes Sue Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Peter Brant, and Georg von Opel's Westerberg operation, won the leading owner title at Royal Ascot for the fourth time. They had an outstanding week, with four winners.
All four winners at Royal Ascot were trained by Aidan O'Brien, with River Tiber and Paddington claiming victory on the first day in the Coventry Stakes and St James's Palace Stakes respectively, both ridden by Ryan Moore.
Team Effort Shines At Royal Ascot
On Thursday, Warm Heart won the Ribblesdale Stakes for Moore, and on Saturday, Age of Kings, ridden by Wayne Lordan, won the Jersey Stakes.
Georg von Opel said, “It has been a fantastic week. We are blessed with a very, very good team and I am proud to be part of it, but there’s a lot of people doing all the work. It’s an incredible team and we’re very lucky.
“Royal Ascot is the greatest event for horses in the world. Particularly from Germany, we have a production of 500-600 foals only, so this is huge for us. Of course, I’ve been living in England for 23 years with the family, who are all English, so I’m getting used to it a little bit, but it’s still fantastic.
“It’s not only the winners, but again it’s a team effort – there have been a lot of seconds, a lot of thirds – so if you look at the whole armada of horses, it’s an amazing effort by everybody who is involved with them. I’m proud of that.”
With four wins and six seconds, Aidan O'Brien secured his 12th leading trainer title at the event, tying with John & Thady Gosden for the same number of wins. Adding to the family success, Joseph O'Brien claimed two victories and Donnacha O'Brien celebrated his first Royal Ascot win with Porta Fortuna in the Albany Stakes on Friday.
O’Brien said, “It’s very special for the two lads [Joseph and Donnacha] to have winners as well. We know how difficult it is – we came here a lot of years with a lot of horses and didn’t have any winners. It’s very, very competitive, fiercely competitive. When you come here and have a winner, it’s such a privilege.
“We came with a lot of horses this year and we hoped, but we never expected. We are so delighted to get the winners we got. Ryan [Moore] was brilliant, Wayne [Lordan] rode a winner today and a lot of people have put in a lot of hard work.