Rebel's Romance wins to end Charlie Appleby drought as wonder horse halts trainer's 37-race losing streak
Old friends are so special because they are there when you need them most. Royal Ascot had threatened to push Charlie Appleby to the brink, but then along came Rebel's Romance.
'Wonder horse' is an overused phrase but there is absolutely something wondrous — and marvellous — about Rebel's Romance, a seven-year-old with more stamps in his passports than the adventurer Simon Reeve and more money than a lottery winner.
Appleby, the lead trainer for the Godolphin organisation, had not saddled a Royal Ascot winner since 2022 and when Treanmor — favourite for Saturday's opening race, the Chesham Stakes — was sunk without trace, his losing streak had reached 37 runners.
There had been high-profile reverses in recent days — Ruling Court, Cinderella's Dream and Shadow Of Light — and you did not need to be a body language expert to understand Appleby and his jockey, William Buick, were feeling things before the Group Two Hardwicke Stakes.
None of this mattered to Rebel's Romance, who prowled around the parade ring panther-like. He has been there and done it, having amassed 74,500 air miles to win in six different countries, from America to Hong Kong. With his pal in trouble, this gelding went out to take on the world for him.
'I've got a picture of this fellow on my bedside table,' said Appleby, a proud father of four. 'He means that much to us all.'
You could see why. The Hardwicke Stakes is ferociously competitive but it was made for Rebel's Romance. When he struck the front, the kind of roar you expect at Cheltenham thundered from the stands and for all that Al Riffa and Ghostwriter snapped at his heels, they could not get past.
Rebel's Romance, at one stage, clocked 42.9mph on the mile-and-a-half journey — a fraction faster than French sprinter Lazzat's top speed in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes and he has now won more than £10 million in prize money. 'Full credit to the horse first and foremost and full credit to all the team,' said Appleby.
'It's been a tough week but that is what you expect when you come here. It's the Olympics. You can come here thinking you are fully loaded with great chances. You can walk away with excuses but that's racing.
'I would like to think we compose ourselves well, we take (defeats) on the chin and then we look forward. I was always taught from a young age, when I came into racing by His Highness Sheik Mohammed, to applaud every winner and enjoy your own.
'I know how hard it is for people to get horses here, let alone to have a winner. I would like to think I'm the first to go and congratulate everyone when they have a winner. But if you could ever rely on one, it was him. Our last race, my last roll dice. He's more than an iron horse. He's kept us afloat.'
Buick was similarly overcome. The jockey, whose week had been made by winning the Prince Of Wales's Stakes on Ombudsman and Gold Cup on Trawlerman for John and Thady Gosden, has ridden Rebel's Romance in 23 of his 26 races and the bond they share is huge.
'We have won more than 10 million in prize money,' said Buick. 'He has been around the block and is a top-class racehorse.
'You don't find many top-class horses with a will to win like he has. I always say he always finds a way. We gel well together. He is my best friend.'
What a tribute. Racing becomes relatable to those with a passing interest in the sport when they learn about the exploits of these grand old stagers, who turn up and never disappoint. You'll get a chance to see Rebel's Romance here next month in the King George, Ascot's mid-summer championship.
It needed something special to take the headlines on the final day and Lazzat, with his high jinks after winning the Group One sprint, almost provided it as he did a lap of the course, having got rid of jockey James Doyle as they posed for photographs.
Lazzat, trained by Jerome Reynier, became France's first winner of the race and a fifth of an exceptional week for Wathan Racing, the venture of Qatar's Emir. The gelding got the better of a wonderful head-to-head with Japanese raider Satono Reve.
'I could feel Satono Reve coming but you won't get a more genuine horse than Lazzat,' said Doyle, Wathnan's retained rider. 'He really pinned his ears back when he joined me, and he was always going to see him off.
'He was my banker of the week. I feel guilty because we have only bought the horse (privately from his previous owners) a couple of weeks ago, and I landed on him. A huge thank you to the whole team, a big thanks to everyone.'
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