Jimi Hendrix (New Bay) wins The Royal Hunt Cup at Royal Ascot for Chelsea Thoroughbreds and Ralph Beckett.
Winning jockey Ryan deflected all the praise on to the trainer. “Ralph is a genius,” he said. “We figured out a lot last time at Newmarket when he didn’t run up to scratch. Ralph has freshened him up lovely and credit to him and everyone at Kimpton. I get the easy job of riding him, but the lads behind the scenes do all the work. This one is for them.”
Beckett, who trained the first two home in the race for connections said “What a performance. I actually gave Ryan the choice of the two. It’s great to get Sonny Liston back, he has to be ridden like that, we think.
“I always thought the winner had a day like this in him. He won the Spring Cup nicely enough, but ran poorly on the Rowley Mile last time out. I think we’ll avoid the Rowley Mile for now. I thought he’d win the Cambridgeshire last year, but that doesn’t matter now because he’s won today.
“You couldn’t make it up the same syndicate own the first two, they are very happy.
“It’s been a tough week up to now, it hasn’t been going great but to win a Hunt Cup takes a bit of doing, to finish first and second is very satisfying, and it’s great for Rossa, he gave him a peach.”
