Royal Ascot’s CEO Guy Henderson announced that the Royal Ascot 2018 meeting proved a tremendous success.
Worthy winners of the leading awards were:
Royal Ascot Leading Trainer Award - Aidan O'Brien
Royal Ascot Leading Jockey Award - Ryan Moore
Royal Ascot Leading Owner – Coolmore Stud
Over 300,000 people visited Royal Ascot racecourse during the 5 days.
Hard to believe but it was only this year saw the introduction of sectional timing.
A truly international G1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes went the way of Aidan O'Brien with the Australian Merchant Navy (by Fastnet Rock) claiming a narrow and tenacious win.
Australian Group One winner Merchant Navy prevailed in a tight finish to the Diamond Jubilee Stakes, the feature race on the final day of Royal Ascot.
Sent out at 4-1, Merchant Navy under Ryan Moore having given his all in the run, was a spent force on the line but managed to dig deep enough to hold out French horse City Light by a short head with USA runner Bound For Nowhere finishing third.
The race was marred by controversy when favourite Harry Angel was declared a runner despite having his leg caught on the side of the stall, causing him to miss the start.
Aiden O'Brien said Merchant Navy (G1 winner of the Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington last spring), would likely run in the July Cup before returning to Australia for stud duties at Coolmore.
"He was travelling very well and we knew looking at him that Ryan (Moore) was very happy," he said.
"I think Ryan was hoping not to get there (the front) too early on him and then he got a little bit of a bump and Ryan said it took him a bit of time to re-balance."
O’Brien said "We thought it was an impossible task for him here as he was 12lb (5kg) worse off than he would have been in Australia.
"He's being treated as a four-year-old up here but he's really only a three-year-old. I came here prepared that he couldn't win, reading what everyone was saying."
"The plan was that he'd run here and the July Cup and then go back to Australia, as there's a lot of mares waiting on him."