Royal Ascot 2024: Auguste Rodin wins Prince of Wales Stakes

Auguste Rodin (7-4 favourite) scored another superb victory at the highest level in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes on day two of Royal Ascot 2024 to give his trainer Aidan O’Brien a stunning Group 1 victory in career.

O’Brien’s hero in the 2023 Betfred Derby has blown hot and cold throughout his career but was again on his best behavior to land the day two role in the Berkshires in fine style. Under another good ride from Ryan Moore, who joined the now retired Frankie Dettori with 81 winners at the Royal meeting after earlier winning the Queen’s Vase on stablemate Illinois, Auguste Rodin always traveled well off the pace set by 150-1, snob. and stablemate Hans Andersen. And once home in the 1m2f Group 1 contest, Moore and the four-year-old son of Deep Impact took control and went on to superbly hold off late French challenges from Jerome Reynier Zarekem (33-1) and Patrice Cottier. -trained Horizon Dore (7-1), who were three-quarters of a length and a length back to the line respectively.

Auguste Rodin was very good in a walking day. Was a Group 1 winner as a juvenile. But he disappointed hugely in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket last May before running off a fine Derby winner at Epsom. He then took a Derby double in Ireland at the Curragh and looked firmly back on track. But after being almost stopped when last of 10 in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, he bounced back to become a superb winner of the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown over this distance of 1m2f. He finished his three-year-old campaign with another success in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita and despite another no-show when again last of 12 in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan and second to White Birch in Group One . Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh last month, he was again at his best.

On fast ground, he is enjoying Auguste Rodin’s sixth Group 1 success and an 87th Royal Ascot win for his sire. O’Brien, who won the Prince of Wales’s Stakes for the fifth time, said: “I’m so delighted for the lads, he’s a very special horse. Gets a mile and a half very well but when he gets to the front. He’s waiting, so I must have been giving him the wrong instructions all along. I rode him too far and when there was no rhythm I changed everything, Ryan said he will ride him positively from now on and get him involved right away. I honestly feel like the blips were my fault, the instructions were wrong and it was time to start doing it right.

“I saw today when he gets to the front, he waits and then he goes again. He’s got a personality. Good horses, he’s got to develop a personality. And Ryan gave him a very special ride. “He can do anything, he can go in America – it totally depends on what the boys want to do. We were very surprised when he went to the dirt (working before the Breeders’ Cup Turf) how he did, he cruises. The great thing about him now is that he is happy to be led forward. We are now more confident that we have solved it.”

On whether Auguste Rodin with stablemate and this year’s Derby winner City Of Troy, O’Brien added: “The boys will decide that, hopefully it won’t be necessary.”

Moore said: “He’s a great horse. Okay, a few times it didn’t happen, but there were reasons every time. Maybe King George was coming off a tough run in both Derbys, which is a hard thing to do. He took me there, going very well, and when I asked him, he showed great courage.