Lloyd-Webber hits right note at Ascot with Fugue
TRAINER John Gosden likened The Fugue to a ballerina after the Lord Lloyd Webber-owned 11-2 shot outmanoeuvred fellow filly and hot favourite Treve to win the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot yesterday.
Jockey William Buick led home The Fugue by almost two lengths from Magician, with Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Treve, under Frankie Dettori, a disappointing third.
“Treve is a wondrous filly and I would not want to take on Treve on soft ground over a mile and a half in the Arc. I wouldn’t want to go near her; I think she’s unbeatable,” he said.
“But this was summer racing, a mile and a quarter on good to firm ground, and that’s the difference. She has little feet like a ballerina and doesn’t like soft ground, so if it’s soft we don’t run.”
Buick hailed The Fugue as “an absolute star” following her fourth Group One triumph, adding: “When she gets an uncomplicated run like she did and they come back to her, she’s lethal.”
Dettori admitted to having concerns over Treve’s state before they went off. “Going to the start she didn’t feel like Treve and at the back of my mind I knew I was in trouble,” he said. “Something is definitely wrong and what’s wrong was before the race.”
Jockey Pat Smullen earlier claimed a double, piloting Mustajeeb to the Jersey Stakes and on board Anthem Alexander in the Queen Mary Stakes in consecutive races.