Masquerade Ball, Wurttemberg come up short in King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes challenge, finish seventh and ninth

Masquerade Ball was humbled in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes as the reigning Tenno Sho (Autumn) champion finished a distant and disappointing seventh place at Ascot on Saturday (July 25).

The other entry from the JRA, Wurttemberg, had an even tougher afternoon, ending up last in the nine-horse field won by Kalpana, who was runner-up in last year’s race and the only British runner among the group.

Kalpana’s winning time over the 2,390-meter race was 2 minutes, 27.72 seconds. The going was listed as good to firm. The 5-year-old mare - by Study of Man by JRA legend Deep Impact - held off defending champion Calandagan by a length and a half to snatch the winner’s check of 1.1 million pounds.

Masquerade Ball crossed the line in 2:30.11, more than 14 lengths behind the winner while Oisin Murphy took his foot off the pedal of Wurttemberg who came home 29 seconds out of first.

Trainer Takahisa Tezuka said the Christophe Lemaire-ridden Masquerade Ball struggled with the pace and could not find a way into the race.

“We thought it would be best if he tried to come from behind but speaking with Christophe just now, the pace turned out to be a lot slower than we anticipated,” Tezuka said. “He started going after it on the downhill which was a shame.

“They kept pulling away on the straight and he showed a lot of heart by taking the bit again, but he was out of gas in the end. His best race is still ahead of him. Hopefully we can use this as motivation going forward.”

Lemaire was naturally down after his prized 4-year-old colt never had a moment from start to finish. Masquerade Ball rounded for home next to last with only his compatriot Wurttemberg behind him. The gap was simply too much for him to overcome.

“He’s not very good at the start so we fell behind going off but it wasn’t a terrible position,” Lemaire said. “The pace early on wasn’t fast and the horse grew restless. He ran hard up to the hill and gave it everything he had down the stretch but unfortunately, wasn’t able to quicken the way he needed to.

“Ascot is a tough course. We thank everyone for all the support but it was not our day today. We hope to keep at it.”

Six-year-old veteran Wurttemberg was coming off second place in this year’s Tenno Sho (Spring), but both trainer Hiroshi Miyamoto and Murphy conceded their horse may have been out of his depth on a challenging course, against this level of competition.

“It wasn’t easy as we expected it might be,” Miyamoto said. “We thought he was in pretty good condition but Oisin said the pace was too fast for him. He just ultimately didn’t have any horse left when it mattered so the jockey said he didn’t want to push him anymore than he did.

“The result is what it is, and I think we have to own it and accept it.”

Added Murphy, “He got off to a nice start and felt good the first two, three furlongs. We sat toward the back during the trip, but he stopped responding with about a furlong to go. I tried to get him going but he just wasn’t responding. I just want to thank our fans in Japan for all the support.”

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Ascot racecourse
Result: BHA, Racing Post