Join The Saratoga Special Readers Club for exclusive access to news, swag, discounts, special events and more
Sean Clancy 
It’s Friday at Royal Ascot. Two remaining days and then we’ll have our mornings back. Tepin Tuesday. Lady Aurelia Wednesday. Thursday, well, Thursday, belonged to Ryan Moore who doubled on Order Of St George and Even Song and Alan King who won his first race at Royal Ascot with Primitivo. American-breds have won four. And counting…
Hump Day at Royal Ascot. Two days down, three to go.
The American flag is waving strong after Tepin lit it up Tuesday and Lady Aurelia hammered a 7-length win in the Queen Mary Wednesday for Stonestreet, Wesley Ward and Frankie Dettori.
Tepin. Tepin. Tepin. Royal Ascot opened Tuesday, American champion Tepin had a mountain to climb – soft ground, straight course, no Lasix, no nasal strip, travel – and in 1:43.98, she had scaled the mountain. Hell, she moved it. Winning the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes with simplistic grace. Our sport has been under international fire, mostly over Lasix and the use of other medication, Tepin lit her own fire Tuesday at Royal Ascot.
Royal Ascot in the morning. Parx Racing in the afternoon. Now, that’s a doubleheader.
I’ll watch the opening day at Royal Ascot from my parents’ couch and then hop in the car and hit the Pennsylvania Turnpike for a jaunt to Parx, in time to catch the seventh, no need for my top hat.
It’s time for Royal Ascot – five days of the best racing in the world.
Last summer, in the TIHR office, we tried to compare calendars.
“What are you doing in the second week of June?” ‘Well, there’s Royal Ascot.’ “You’re going?” ‘No, I’m not going, but that’s what I’m doing that week.’
With that in mind, we bring you Royal Ascot 2016.
Wesley Ward didn’t hesitate when asked about his horse who changed everything.
“Unfinished Symph,” Ward said, a week before his annual assault on Royal Ascot. “He was awesome.”
Belmont Stakes Day – 70 degrees, partly cloudy. A chance of rain increasing from 30 percent to 60 percent later this afternoon.
“Do you still write?”
That’s what I was asked after the announcement of my brother’s recent Joe Hirsch Award for the best article on American Pharoah’s Belmont Stakes (if you’re keeping score, that’s two in a row for www.thisishorseracing.com).
“None of the above – right now.”
That’s how Wesley Ward answered if he was nervous, excited or watching the weather, 12 days before his annual raid on Royal Ascot.
Miles waved his mother’s white scarf and danced in the aisle. He belted out “Dear Abby, Dear Abby” as loud as he could. He curled up in his mother’s arms when Prine slowed it down with “Souvenirs.” He yelled “Prison in Christmas” as Prine strummed the first few notes of a song Miles still can’t quite figure out. He stood and clapped for an encore and then sang along with “Muhlenberg County.”
