John Gosden

Ascot Wed, 17th Jun, 2026  Ombudsman Ascot is enormous now it is so big in our season and the Prince of Wales’s Stakes is one of the jewels. To win these races is what it’s all about and it’s great to beat the best on this stage. Aidan and I are big rivals but we get on and we tease each other a lot. There’s no harm in that and it’s a little bit of banter. Ombudsman though is a wonderful horse and only Calandagan and Delacroix beat him last year and he’s shown his class again today. He quickened well and showed some dominance there. You had Arc winners and champion racemares in there and it was a champions performance. I was really taken by his acceleration. It’s thrilling to win this again for Sheikh Mohammed and Godolphin, it’s what dreams are made of.

Wed, 17th Jun, 2026  Ombudsman Ascot is enormous now it is so big in our season and the Prince of Wales’s Stakes is one of the jewels. To win these races is what it’s all about and it’s great to beat the best on this stage. Aidan and I are big rivals but we get on and we tease each other a lot. There’s no harm in that and it’s a little bit of banter. Ombudsman though is a wonderful horse and only Calandagan and Delacroix beat him last year and he’s shown his class again today. He quickened well and showed some dominance there. You had Arc winners and champion racemares in there and it was a champions performance. I was really taken by his acceleration. It’s thrilling to win this again for Sheikh Mohammed and Godolphin, it’s what dreams are made of.

Ascot Wed, 17th Jun, 2026  Ombudsman Aidan (O’Brien) had a pacemaker and we thought we would have ours doing what we wanted to do as well so they wound up meeting as they came off the bend so they obviously agreed on the pace. A furlong and a half to go I thought ‘they are going to have to get to them’ but this horse has got a turn of foot, great acceleration for a mile and a quarter horse and he just showed that class. It was quite something to come away from the field like that. The filly (Minnie Hauk) ran great, the Arc winner Daryz ran great. Probably the horse that won in Ireland (Almaqam) might not have run his race today because he would usually have been in the shake-up but overall I thought it was one of the great performances of his career. He is very elegant. He is strong for sure. We will watch him for the next week to 10 days and the horse will tell you (how he is). You just watch them. You know their habits when they are right when they are 100 per cent, when they are full of it and when they are under par. The Juddmonte International would be the major target. He likes York. We are very lucky to have wonderful owners to send us those horses because you can’t train empty boxes. He is right up there with what he has done. Enable, she won everything. He is a lovely horse who will make a good stallion and he’s got a mind as well as a fabulous body and strength. He is too good to go a mile and a half!