KING Charles and Queen Camilla celebrated a huge £20,000 winner – but their jockey was slated for ‘getting away with blue murder’.
The Royal couple’s John & Thady Gosden-trained Rainbows Edge finally showed she belongs in the big time with victory at Longchamp in Paris on Sunday.
A two-time runner-up at Listed level who had been beaten under two lengths on her last two runs, she benefitted from having new champion jockey Oisin Murphy in the saddle.
Dropped back in trip to 1m1f, she was sent off 14-5 for the Prix Casimir Delamarre for fillies and mares aged three and older.
Sent straight to the front by Murphy, Rainbows Edge was forced into top gear two furlongs out but was always doing enough to keep 2-1 fav Velikaya in the runner-up spot.
The victory was welcome relief for King Charles and Queen Camilla – who was at Ascot on Saturday for Champions Day – given their tough time on the track this season.
He and the Queen won more than half a million quid from their 101 Flat runs in 2023, including Desert Hero’s £113,000 Gordon Stakes win.
But they are down to £152,407 in Great Britain alone this season, after banking £165,992 last season.
While their 18 per cent strike rate is better than ever, it could suggest the pair are limiting their number of horses with the intent of winning more from what they have.
Either way, that certainly worked with Rainbows Edge – although her jockey Murphy came in for a slating earlier in the day.
Legendary trainer William Haggas – who actually trained Royal Ascot winner Desert Hero – didn’t hold back in his criticism of the five-time champ.
He laid into what he said was Murphy’s use of a ‘professional foul’ – and cited his ride aboard Corinth at Sandown in August as an example.
Sun Racing’s Jack Keene highlighted in his review of the Flat season – and couldn’t believe stewards allowed Murphy to keep the race that day after he appeared to barge into Harry Davies on Loz Vegas.
Haggas said on Luck on Sunday: “He is an outstanding rider, but he’s got away with blue murder on the racecourse for a while.
“He’s a complicated soul, unfortunately, but as a rider there is no doubt he is the best around.
“There was an example that really, really upset me.
“I’ve been very upset over the past few years with the professional foul that jockeys do – that sort of leaning across a horse and then pulling the stick through and winning by a length.
“But if you are on a bicycle in a bicycle race and you have to stop suddenly, then you can’t actually get going again.
“When horses win by a length, they say ‘well it’s won too easily’ (to be disqualified).
“The jockeys know and they do it a lot.
“The incident with Corinth at Sandown, I thought Oisin deliberately made sure that Harry Davies didn’t win that race.
“It got taken off him, but to say that was accidental is complete and utter madness.
“We have to step on this sort of thing because that, in my opinion, was bordering on dangerous.
“If Harry had fallen and gone to hospital, they would have made a song and dance about it.
“That is not the way to be riding from our champion jockey.”
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