Charles and Camilla out to end 46 years of Royal hurt with ‘hero’ horse he inherited from the late Queen
AS we speak, the result of Saturday’s wide-open St Leger is anything but certain.
But you can guarantee this – if Desert Hero emerges victorious, we’ll soon be saying: “Arise, Sir William and Sir Tom.”
GettyThe King and Queen have a big chance in the St Leger with their horse Desert Hero[/caption]
Because if top team Haggas and Marquand can end the 46-year wait for another Royal Classic winner a knighthood will surely be in the offing.
For services to racing, and for services to the Royal coffers.
They’re already in King Charles and Queen Camilla’s good books, after all, having combined with Desert Hero to win the King George V Stakes at Royal Ascot back in June.
It was a huge moment for the jockey and trainer, two masters of their respective crafts.
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Let’s not forget, there has been more than the odd bit of speculation that the sport of Kings doesn’t do a great deal for this particular King.
It was important that the Royal racing operation, which has been slimmed down over the past 12 months, got off to a good start in this new era.
The King’s roster of trainers must have been feeling the heat going into Ascot with a new face peering down from the Royal Box for the first time since 1952 – and Haggas and Marquand delivered.
But success in a race with the status and history of the St Leger would be another step up entirely.
There are just five Classics each year, a mere handful of chances for three-year-old colts and fillies to follow in the footsteps of some of the greatest horses of all time.
The Derby is the most coveted and one that the Queen was never able to win, though she came close with Carlton House in 2011.
But she did have a bit of Donald Duck in the Leger.
She won it with Dunfermline, arguably the best horse she ever owned, in 1977, three months after the filly had won the Oaks at Epsom.
We’ve had 10 prime ministers, 15 chancellors and roughly 4,000 Watford managers since then, but she remains the most recent Royal Classic winner.
In a way, it is fitting that the King has a leading contender for this race, given it is almost a year to the day after the Queen’s passing.
Of course, this meeting was interrupted last season after her death on September 8.
All sport was suspended in the UK for two days during a period of national mourning, with the bulk of the St Leger meeting condensed into a nine-race, action-packed Sunday card.
The mood at Doncaster that day was sombre and bleak – but there’ll be a totally different feel this weekend.
Desert Hero is going to get the red-carpet treatment and, whisper it, there is confidence in racing’s corridors of power that the King and Queen will be on course to watch their horse run.
As Haggas has said many times in the build-up to the race, it’s his job to get the horse to the track, not his owners.
And he is one of the few men in the sport who has proven his ability at dealing with the weight of expectation: “Pressure is for tyres.”
But he also understands how huge a moment a Royal Classic winner would be for the sport – headlines would be made around the world, not just in the racing bubble.
He said: “It could have been anyone who had a winner for the King and Queen at Ascot, we were just lucky it was us.
“The cheer they got when they came into the winner’s enclosure that day was special. I think they were genuinely touched.
“I was thrilled with the horse but I understood the significance of the moment, as I understand the significance of the moment this weekend.
“The Royal family are very important to our sport. The King was here at the yard to see the horses three days after his coronation.
“For me, that showed he really wants to be involved.”
And how about the man on board?
Nice guy Marquand is having a top-notch season, with a bucket load of big wins and nearly £3.5 million in prize-money.
He could give Ryan Moore and run for his money in the unflappable stakes, and he will need to keep his cool on Saturday afternoon.
Marquand said: “It’s the greatest honour for any jockey when you put on those Royal silks, it’s what you dream about as a young person.
“Having that win for them at Ascot was right up there in terms of great days I’ve had, hopefully we can give them another.
“I certainly think I have the horse capable of winning.”
Let’s not forget about the horse, who was bred by the Queen and has improved with every visit to the track this summer.
And he looked more than ready for the step up to Group 1 level when a cosy winner of the Gordon Stakes at Glorious Goodwood – a race which has been a springboard to Leger glory for nine horses over the years.
Haggas said: “Horses can suddenly thrive and he is doing extremely well at the moment.
“No-one really knows about the trip until you do it, and there are so few opportunities for three-year-olds at that sort of distance.
“A lot of us will be guessing whether we’ll get the trip, but I don’t see a reason why he shouldn’t be just as good over the extra distance anyway.
“Hopefully he will continue to improve and it seems like conditions won’t bother him as he won on faster ground at Ascot and it was slow at Goodwood.
“He has a great attitude and has an incredible will to win – we will see how he gets on.”
Will it be hats orf to our new Hero? Or a King-sized damp squib? We’re about to find out.
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