We may have had four of the five Classics of 2022, but summer doesn’t officially start until after Royal Ascot and the Flat season still has plenty of questions that have yet to be answered.
Here are five horses for whom the coming weeks and months are extremely important.
DESERT CROWN
We all saw what the Sir Michael Stoute-trained colt did at Epsom – but that still can prove only the start of the Desert Crown legend.
The son of Nathaniel’s victory in the Dante Stakes at York in March – on what was just his second start, and his first of 2022 – promised much.
And he delivered with interest with an explosive burst of speed that settled the Cazoo Derby in a matter of strides.
Desert Crown has the potential to be an exceptional Derby winner. Ascot’s King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes or the Irish Derby at the Curragh will tell us even more than an interview with his trainer!
ADAYAR
If Desert Crown goes to Ascot, he’s likely to meet the reigning champion – and last year’s Derby hero.
After a defeat in Lingfield’s Derby Trial, Adayar took a giant leap forward to lift the 2021 Derby by four and a half lengths before adding the King George to his CV last July.
That success marked him as the first Derby winner to do the Epsom-Ascot double since Galileo 20 years earlier.
The rest of the campaign yielded defeats with a fourth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe before a fifth in the Champion Stakes at Ascot 13 days later, and a setback forced Adayar to miss intended returns in the Coronation Cup at Epsom and Royal Ascot’s Prince Of Wales’s Stakes this year.
Uneasy the head that wears the crown?
INSPIRAL
Adayar isn’t the only star of 2021 who has kept us waiting.
Social media wags were falling over themselves to tell us Inspiral would soon be 3-1 for this year’s 1,000 Guineas – yeah, we get it – after she impressed with victories at Newmarket and Sandown Park before racking up the hat-trick in Doncaster’s Group 2 May Hill Stakes in September.
And Frankel’s daughter was indeed ‘carpet’ for the fillies’ Classic after making it an unbeaten four-from-four juvenile season in the Fillies’ Mile at Headquarters in October.
Inspiral’s work in the spring didn’t impress and she missed Newmarket and the Irish version at the Curragh.
Reports from Newmarket have been much more favourable ahead of Royal Ascot’s Coronation Stakes as she bids to make up for lost time.
EMILY UPJOHN
Her stablemate Inspiral may have been slow to come to hand in the spring, but Emily Upjohn couldn’t wait for the season to get started.
The winner of a Wolverhampton novice event in November on her sole start at two, the daughter of Sea The Stars gave Frankie Dettori a ‘wow’ moment with a wide-margin score at Sandown Park in April and became a short-priced Cazoo Oaks favourite on the strength of a five-and-a-half-length supremacy in York’s Group 3 Dante Stakes 19 days later.
That Epsom didn’t go to plan is an understatement. Emily Upjohn trailed the field after a stumble leaving the stalls and, while she powered home, a short head separated her from Tuesday at the line.
Redemption surely awaits at the Curragh before Emily seeks to blunt male rivals later in the year.
MY PROSPERO
Defeating the Queen’s Reach For The Moon wasn’t the result the racing world was hoping for – but that wasn’t My Prospero’s fault. After being ruled out of the Derby, the royal runner made his long-awaited comeback in the Listed Heron Stakes at Sandown Park in mid-May.
But it was My Prospero who gained the day by a length and a half to add another potential star to an annus mirabilis for William Haggas.
The son of Iffraaj will step up to Group 1 company for the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot. And while My Prospero is still a work in progress, he has so much ability to tackle his stiffest test yet.
