Shaquille (9-1) overcame a slow start to shock hot favourite Little Big Bear to land as superb victory in the Commonwealth Cup on day four of Royal Ascot 2023.
Yorkshire trainer Julie Camacho, one of the smaller stables on the Flat, upstaged the powerful Aidan O'Brien yard as her Charm Spirit colt – who had won four of his five previous starts all at a lower level – despite being out the back after breaking slowly from the stalls triumphed in the Group One contest. Little Big Bear, who had won Listed Windsor Castle Stakes at last year's Royal Ascot and also Group Two Sandy Lane Stakes at Haydock Park last month, was sent off the well-backed 10-11 favourite. And it appeared all was going to plan under Ryan Moore as he was always handy and moved to the front towards the business end of the six-furlong sprint. But Shaquille, under Oisin Murphy, started to move through the field and stylishly came upsides to challenge the Ballydoyle star. And it was Shaquille who powered away for victory to score by a length-and-a-half from Little Big with the front-running Swingalong (66-1) a further three-quarters-of-a-length back in third.
Malton-based Camacho was delighted to land a first success at Royal Ascot. On the slow start, she said: “I thought, ‘well that’s it, he’s blown his chance’. I’ve just watched it live and would like to go back and watch it properly – he was good, wasn’t he? It’s massive. We never thought we would train a Group One winner, not at Royal Ascot anyway and for Martin it’s massive. He bred him, we’ve got his mother at home, his siblings, dad looks after the stud so I’m sure he was screaming at home.”
