Two more on day three: Wathnan enjoying a memorable Royal Meeting

Shareholder and English Oak bookend a wonderful Thursday for the peacock blue and old gold

Another day, another Wathnan youngster – again trained in Wensleydale by Karl Burke – strikes in a Royal Ascot two-year-old test. Today it was Shareholder, putting up arguably the best performance from a juvenile colt this week, in the Group 2 speed test, the Norfolk Stakes.

Promptly away – unlike on his debut, barely 11 days before – he struck the front early and kept on resolutely. Trainer Karl Burke was full of praise, and is already thinking about Royal Ascot 2025 with the son of star young American sire, Not This Time: “I was pretty confident we has a good horse, we just needed to find out how good. I’d say he’s all speed. I think he will definitely stay six and I’m sure he’ll be a Commonwealth Cup horse.”

Wathnan Racing’s Gold Cup hope Gregory faded late on and will probably chance his hand in less extreme tests of stamina, while unexposed three-year-old French Duke – who has yet to win a race – was found out by his inexperience when a promising sixth in the 19-runner King George V Stakes. Later on the card, Native Warrior won his race on the stands side of the Britannia Handicap, only to find two had pipped him to the post on the far side of the course: an admirable third. French-trained First Look couldn’t stay with the frontrunners in the closing stages of the Group 3 Hampton Court Stakes, finishing fourth, the race and the rigours of travel perhaps coming too hard on the heels of his French Derby second.

But there was one more thrill to come: English Oak surged three lengths clear in the closing Buckingham Palace Stakes over seven furlongs, the pace having been set by fellow Wathnan colour-bearer Make Me King. English Oak’s handicapping days are now likely over, and trainer Ed Walker talked of potential Group 1 and Group 2 targets for his exciting charge.