Five! Lazzat crowns our unforgettable Royal Ascot

Two wonderful winners at our first Royal Ascot. Four last year, when runners-up to Coolmore on the successful owners’ list. And now five winners at the 2025 Royal meeting, stride for stride with Coolmore this time around, the week finishing as it began with a double – crowned with the all-the-way triumph of Lazzat in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes. The winning horse promptly deposited jockey James Doyle on the turf in front of the thronging grandstands before gleefully setting off on an impromptu lap of honour.

But our roll of honour was even more impressive: Tuesday victories for crowd favourite Haatem in the Wolferton and French Master – a star stayer of the future – in the Copper Horse, the Wednesday win of Crimson Advocate in the Group 2 Duke Of Cambridge Stakes, and a front-running Saturday double, Humidity in the Chesham Stakes for juveniles then French-trained Lazzat in the big sprint. There were near-misses and good performances in defeat, plus the inevitable handful of disappointments – but at the fixture so often described as racing’s Olympics, with championship races at every turn, this was a week of deeply satisfying sporting achievement for the old gold and peacock blue.

The headline on Sunday’s Racing Post caught the mood, proclaiming DOYLE ASCOT! after the jockey who matched his four-race winning haul on Wathnan horses last year. The one that got away, for him: Crimson Advocate, ridden by antipodean superstar James McDonald, with James Doyle’s mount Fallen Angel running on stoutly for third.

Royal Ascot, arriving at barely the mid-season point, is such an intense focus of attention that it is frequently challenge too far for horses to repeat their performances here later in the year. Equally, there is much to look forward to, with French Master looking ready for a rise in grade (a tilt at the Group 1 Goodwood Cup is on the cards) while Lazzat is sure to be hard to beat wherever he turns up.