‘Incredible’ horse who makes owner £140,000 per race subject of ‘huge’ Royal Ascot bets as whole host of big names axed
A HORSE who makes his owner £140,000 per race is the subject of ‘huge’ Royal Ascot bets – as a whole host of big names were pulled from the summer’s biggest racing spectacular.
Tuesday’s scratchings stage saw superstar stayer Kyprios removed from the Gold Cup as he was retired with immediate effect.
And he wasn’t the only top runner to have their Royal dreams axed weeks before it begins on June 17.
Among them was John and Thady Gosden’s Prix de l’Opera-winning filly Friendly Soul, who had been as short as 10-1 for the 1m Queen Anne.
She was cut from the £1million Prince Of Wales’s Stakes over 1m2f as well, along with the likes of stablemate Running Lion – dad Roaring Lion’s first Royal Ascot star.
Courage Mon Ami, the 2023 Gold Cup winner, had already been taken out of the feature race – while Aidan O’Brien’s Tower Of London was pulled too.
Wathnan saw another of their big horses, Haatem, who won last year’s Jersey Stakes, cut from the Queen Anne and Prince Of Wales.
The four-year-old colt, who has finished fifth and fourth so far this season, has one remaining entry over the summer, in the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood on July 30.
The owner’s Electrolyte was scratched from the Commonwealth Cup, too, as was awesome recent French 2000 Guineas winner Henri Matisse.
With a host of big names out, Ladbrokes reported some massive market moves.
None bigger than that of French raider and Jerome Reynier-trained Lazzat.
The globe-trotting sensation, who has won more than £1.4million from his ten career runs, has been slashed for the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes.
Now 7-2 from 5-1 with Ladbrokes, he could be the one to land the 6f sprint worth over £500,000 to the winner, especially as former ante-post favourite, Aidan O’Brien’s Storm Boy, flopped on debut for the Ballydoyle boss last weekend and is now out to 20s.
Illinois has replaced Kyprios at the head of the Gold Cup betting, while stablemate Lakie Victoria is now odds-on for the Coronation Stakes after her Irish 1000 Guineas win.
But an unknown French runner could spoil Illinois’ party.
Candelari looked all stamina in claiming a Longchamp Group 1 on the weekend and is now just 3-1 second-fav behind 11-8 Illinois.
Alex Apati of Ladbrokes said: “Kyprios’ retirement news has blown the Ascot Gold Cup market wide open, and while Illinois now leads the way in the betting, it’s Candelari who has been given the most notable boost of all.”
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