Royal Ascot: 'There has been money for him in the ante-post market'

Our team of Emma Nagle, Johnny Ward and Stephen Harris are divided on Saturday’s ultra-competitive sprint over six furlongs, with Lazzat installed as the 3/1 favourite. The Group 1-winning star was recently purchased by Wathnan Racing and remains in training in France with Jerome Reynier.

Richard Brown, racing adviser to Wathnan, said following the purchase, “We've long admired Lazzat - who wouldn't? He's a sensational sprinter, a huge talent, and he's been extremely well managed to put together a string of outstanding performances. He'll be a force wherever he turns up in the top six and seven furlong races and we are delighted he'll be running in the Wathnan colours.”

See below, views from our 2025 Royal Ascot preview show:

Stephen's Analysis

Lazzat went back to sprinting at Chantilly at the start of May, it really suited him making all the running, they went a brisk pace and he found plenty to win a good little race there.

The only negative I can find really is fast ground - Lazzat's whole career has been spent on very soft, soft, heavy, good to soft and good a few times, which tended to coincide with slightly lesser efforts.

I thought Storm Boy was disappointing last time without obvious excuses but there has been some money around for him in the ante-post market - maybe that’s significant but this race looks a real minefield.

Johnny's View:

Inisherin is rock solid. I love it when horses who come to this meeting and you know exactly what the ground is going to be like, it's going to be similar to last year, he was brilliant in the Commonwealth Cup. He's trained on, he seems to be just as well as he was since his wind op, and he's a very, very solid contender.

I’m fascinated to see what the market will make of the Ballydoyle runner Storm Boy.

Emma's Take:

Lazzat won a Listed race in Chantilly last time and the form was boosted - the fifth that day James's Delight came out and won the Greenlands Stakes at the Curragh next time so that looks like reasonably strong form.

There's maybe a few ground concerns but Wathnan purchased him and I heard James Doyle speaking about him during the week. He said he was one of the ones he was most looking forward to riding, out of a strong team for Wathnan, so he's probably a deserved favourite.