Scorching Lazzat floors the field at Royal Ascot… and then his jockey too
Speed is the thing. Up until the steam trains got going in the mid-1860s the fastest any of us could go without jumping off a cliff was on the back of a horse. James Doyle was on Lazzat's back as he scorched through the 1,200 metres (six furlongs) of the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes in 71.3sec. When he came in, sweat-soaked, for interviews he looked as if he had been through the mincer. Not from the race but from the sequel.
The 71 seconds of galloping effort had been almost uneventful. From the start Doyle and Lazzat led the group on the far side with Ryan Moore and the former Australian star but now Ballydoyle-based Storm Boy heading the near-side group. As Storm Boy weakened, the Japanese hope, Satono Reve, came through to do battle with the leader. Hard though his legendary Brazilian rider João Moreira strived, they could not chase down Lazzat and the tough bay to become the first ever French winner of this race and their first success of the meeting.
But afterwards Entente Cordiale celebrations had to be put on hold. For while the 18 runners had been dispatched at 3.43pm and crossed the line before 3.45pm, it was not until 4.05pm that the beaming and sweat-soaked Doyle stood with his saddle on the scales to draw the correct weight and make the race result official. The reason was a classic case of the road to hell, or in this case, rather less worrying, Ascot delay, being paved with good intentions.
As Doyle rode back in what had been a fifth winner in the now ever more familiar blue jacket, orange sleeve Wathnan silks at the meeting, the guy with the cream-coloured victor's horse sheet stepped forward to do his duty. Unfortunately his move had a bit of the matador's cape about it and far from charging like a bull, Lazzat jinked like a snipe and Doyle was spun clear on to the Ascot turf.
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The King may have been coming down to the presentation podium, the winning party preparing their humble lines, but the horse had the freedom of Berkshire.
Several attempts at recapture were treated with forceful contempt, one fly kick only just missing the would-be captor's skull. We could see why the Marseille-based trainer, Jerome Reynier, had the horse gelded before he eventually got on to the racecourse in January last year.
The horse's record speaks much for the prowess of the 39-year-old who started off with only four horses back in 2013 and has taken Lazzat from that little race at Cagnes-sur-Mer last January through a six-race unbeaten run in France, culminating in the group one Prix Maurice De Gheest in August. Adventurously but unsuccessfully Lazzat was then run in both Australia and Hong Kong before getting on track last time with a hugely impressive success in Chantilly.
Impressive enough to catch the eye of Richard Brown and Oli Tate of the Emir of Qatar's Wathnan team, whose success at the expensive and dangerous game of buying already proven horses had been earlier franked by Humidity holding on in bold, not to mention meteorological, style to win the Chesham Stakes. Significantly, that Chantilly race was Lazzat's first over as short as six furlongs. So was Saturday's. Few around will run faster.
'I can't take any credit for this at all,' said James Doyle afterward. 'Jerome and his team told me all about him. His young jockey in France did a great job bringing him through the ranks. I have to say Jerome was very confident. He said all week don't worry about the ground. We mapped the pace out and we thought if I end up leading I end up leading — he said don't worry, he won't stop. It worked out perfectly. You won't get a more genuine horse than this.'
Doyle has had a great week in the Wathnan silks but so too has his best man William Buick in the blue silks of Godolphin with Ombudsman in the Prince Of Wales and Trawlerman in the Gold Cup. The latter's gallantry might well make dispute Doyle's tribute to Lazzat (by the way Doyle was also best man to Buick) only for all of them surely to be trumped by Rebel's Romance whom Buick rode to what is an 18th victory in 26 races over five seasons and over more miles than Marco Polo.
He may have started in an unsung race in Newcastle but he has now won major races in Germany, Hong Kong, Dubai, Kentucky and California. He is a massive 17 hand, 550 kilo athlete still fiery enough at seven-years-old to need the scarlet hood in the preliminaries to stop him boiling over.
Buick loves him to death. So too does trainer Charlie Appleby who keeps a picture of Rebel's Romance in his bedroom and had not had a Royal Ascot winner for three years.
'What more can I say about this horse?' said the trainer. 'He's been a huge credit to the team back home and, when it's your last roll of the dance, he's the horse you need. I'm just glad we got one on the board in the end. He's more than our Iron Horse. He's kept our yard afloat this week. He's our stable favourite and always will be.'
Finally the meeting closed with Ryan Moore winning the Queen Alexandra Stakes for the 6th time to land his 7th winner of the meeting so cost Ascot racecourse £35k in their agreed £5k-a-Moore winner commitment to the Retraining of Racehorses Charity. The winner's name was maybe not quite as appropriate to the leaving crowds as the earlier Humidity. It was called Sober.
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