Rare Rhythm sprints to glory at Royal Ascot

After a couple of third place finishes and a second, Godolphin struck at the fag end of the day as Rare Rhythm won The Duke of Edinburgh Stakes Handicap on Day Four at Royal Ascot on Friday.

Tussling with Oasis Fantasy heading into the home stretch, Rare Rhythm, the five-year-old from Dubawi, stepped up under jockey William Buick, with a furlong left to go, to take the winning post.

The charge of Charlie Appleby, Rare Rhythm hadn't had a run since the race's renewal last June, where he had finished eighth. But he showed no signs of rust and overcame breaking from the wide stall 19 to gallop to a fine victory in the contest, run over a mile-and-a-half. Rare Rhythm won by two and a quarter lengths over Roger Varian's Appeared. Star Storm, trained by James Fanshawe, finished third.

Godolphin's Red Galileo, the charge of Emirati trainer Saeed bin Suroor, and ridden by Pat Cosgrave, was eighth.

It was Rare Rhythm's third victory in six starts, with the two other wins coming at Newmarket in 2014 and 2015. It was also Godolphin's sixth winner at the Royal Ascot meeting, so far.

"This one is for Charlie and all the guys at home. They have prepared this horse tremendously well, they deal with him every day so this result is for the team. I'm just the rider on the day," Buick was quoted as saying by Sky Sports.

It was Buick's second winner on the day after he had won The King Edward VII Stakes onboard Permian. He also took his tally to four wins over the course of the week.

"That was a great ride from William. We were confident this horse was fit enough. We have taken him to Chelmsford on two occasions so he was primed for today but I thought the ground would be quick enough, if I'm honest. So, from that draw on that ground, William has given him a brilliant ride. We were going to go forward and float across and couldn't ask for anything more," Appleby was quoted as saying.

"He's a horse we've always felt had plenty of ability, but he hasn't been seen since this race last year, we were just waiting for better ground and then we mapped him out for the November Handicap but he met with a setback. We came here confident but not too bullish," he added.

Earlier in the day, Godolphin's Harry Angel and Blue Point had finished second and third respectively in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup, won by Caravaggio. Godolphin's Secret Advisor was third in The Queen's Vase.

Meanwhile, the trainer-jockey combination of Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore earned a notable double in the feature races.

Moore guided American colt Caravaggio to victory in the Commonwealth Cup then delivered an equally convincing performance aboard Irish filly Winter in the Coronation Stakes.

"Ryan was very confident in him (Caravaggio), he said he was just going to pop him out and let it happen. He said he'd come there very late and that's exactly what he did," Irish trainer O'Brien said.

"He's very quick - I don't think we've ever had a quicker horse." (With inputs from

Source: Khaleej Times