Merchant Navy flies Australian flag to Royal Ascot victory

Hunter Valley breeder Duncan Grimley has won more races than he cares to remember but nothing prepared him for Merchant Navy's fighting victory in the Diamond Jubilee at Royal Ascot on Sunday morning (AEST).

Grimley was one of the original owners of the Fastnet Rock colt, brought for $350,000 at the Inglis Easter Sales before being sold for $28 million after he won the Coolmore Stud Stakes on Derby day at Flemington last year. He was also part of the raucous cheer squad that swelled to “a couple of hundred Aussies” at the Royal meeting.

“That's the pinnacle. That’s like winning on Derby day. As big of a thrill as I have had in racing,” Grimley said.

“When you bring a horse halfway around the world, you’re only really hoping because you can’t know if they will be at their best.

“There is so much against you, but he looked magnificent and raced the same way.

“We can’t beat the poms at anything at the moment but Merchant Navy did it on their turf, in front of the Queen, with a far bit against him.”

The finish bore an uncanny resemblance to that of the same race six years ago to the day, when Australia's greatest sprinter Black Caviar held off French star Moonlight Cloud in a desperately close photo.

Merchant Navy held on to win by a narrow margin from City Light, another French raider, with American Bound For Nowhere – which just about cost the Australian sprinter victory with a sizable bump 100m from home – third in a blanket finish.

“We didn’t know on the line, [jockey] Ryan [Moore] said the bump cost him three-quarters of a length. When the announcement of the number came, that was unbelievable,” Grimley said.

“Seeing [Coolmore Australia boss] Tom Magnier meet the Queen and get the trophy was great.

“He was the one who put the deal together and convinced the rest of Coolmore it was a good idea to buy the colt.

“It looks a right royal idea now.”

While Merchant Navy would have been stiff to get beaten, there were hard-luck stories from the time the barriers opened. Favourite Harry Angel had a leg up on a running board when the gates opened, which would have seen him declared a non-runner in Australia, and missed the start hopelessly, while City Light also got away poorly.

This was a show of Moore’s guile and craft to get the result for Ballydoyle and Aidan O’Brien with Merchant Navy.

"I can't repeat what I was thinking when I hit the line," Moore said.

"He hasn't been up here long. He has had two starts here and won them both, beating high-class fields, and he is only a young horse.

"I sat third and I didn't really want to be third. I had to go sooner than I would have liked. The race didn't really go to script for anybody, I would have thought.

"I thought I would have won easier, but Bound For Nowhere leaned into me and we got very tight, so he lost his rhythm for a second.

"If I got beat, I would have been very unlucky, but I am delighted and it's a pleasure to be riding these sorts of horses."

O’Brien lavished praise on Merchant Navy, which raced with a four-year-old penalty at weight-for-age even though he doesn’t turn four until November.

"We're over the moon with him, really. He's always been very straightforward since he arrived,” he said.

"He did five half-speeds before he went to The Curragh [in Ireland], so we weren't really sure what was going to happen, but we wanted to get a run into him before he came here.

"We thought it was an impossible task for him here as he was 12 pounds worse off than he would have been in Australia. He's being treated as a four-year-old here and he's really a three-year-old. I came here prepared that he couldn't win, reading what everyone was saying."

The other Australian sprinter, Redkirk Warrior, was one of the first beaten and very disappointing.

Merchant Navy's original trainer Ciaron Maher was at Royal Ascot for the first time to watch his charge, which he had a share in, take Royal glory.

"He has done it in both hemispheres and he will be very busy when he goes to stud at the end of this season,” he said. "It is a credit to the team and the staff, he has come right through our system.

"We bought him as a yearling, we broke him in and he has developed all the way, he is just a phenomenal horse.”

Merchant Navy could run in the July Cup at Newmarket on July 14, but he would have to go into quarantine immediately after the race to be back in Australia for stud duties in the spring.

Article courtesy of Fairfax Digital and The Brisbane Times