Royal Ascot 2024: Auguste Rodin wins the Prince Of Wales's Stakes

Auguste Rodin (7-4 favourite) grabbed another superb victory at the top level in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes on the second day of Royal Ascot 2024 to give his trainer Aidan O'Brien an astonishing 400th career Group One win.

O’Brien’s 2023 Betfred Derby hero has blown hot and cold throughout his career but he was on his very best behaviour again to land the feature of the day two in Berkshire in good style. Under another fine ride by Ryan Moore, who has joined the now retired Frankie Dettori on 81 winners at the Royal meeting having won the Queen's Vase earlier on stable-mate Illinois, Auguste Rodin was always travelling well off the pace set 150-1 outsider Snobbish and stable-mate Hans Andersen. And once they turned for home in the 1m2f Group One contest, Moore and the four-year-old son of Deep Impact took over and stayed on superbly holding off the late French challenges of Jerome Reynier's Zarekem (33-1) and the Patrice Cottier-trained Horizon Dore (7-1), who were three-quarters-of-a-length and length back respectively at the line.

Auguste Rodin has been really good when on a going day. He was a Group One winner as a juvenile. But he disappointed hugely in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket last May before running out a fine Derby winner at Epsom. He then grabbed a Derby double in Ireland at the Curragh and looked firmly back on track. But then having been almost pulled up when last of 10 in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, he bounced back again to be superb winner of the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown over this 1m2f distance. He ended his three-year-old campaign with another success in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita and despite another no-show when last again of 12 in the Dubai Sheema Classic in Meydan and being second to the White Birch in the Group One Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh last month, he was back to his best again.

On the fast ground he enjoys Auguste Rodin landed a sixth Group One success himself and an 87th Royal Ascot victory for his master tainer. O'Brien, winning the Prince Of Wales's Stakes for a fifth time, said: "I am so delighted for everybody, especially the lads – they make it happen. Without them, none of it would happen. So many people I don’t mention every day, the people in the farm, the people in the office. There’s so many people. I am so grateful to them all for making this happen. “Auguste Rodin is a very special horse. He gets a mile and a half very well. I was probably giving instructions wrong all along, we were riding him too far back and if there was no pace in the race, he was too far out of the race. So we changed everything. Ryan said he was going to ride him positive, engage him straight away – he’ll get up there and cruise off any pace. He is very straightforward.

“I feel the blips were my fault, the instructions were wrong, and it took us to this time to start getting it right. We saw today that when he gets to the front, he waits, and then he goes again, and that’s what makes him very good. He has a personality, and good horses, they have to develop a personality to become good. And he has everything – the action, the movement, the temperament, the pedigree. So he’s very special really and Ryan gave him a very special ride.”

On future plans, he added: “The lads will decide what they want to do. We give them the feedback and then they make a decision. He can do anything really. He can go to America… we were very surprised when he went to the dirt with the way he handled it. He cruises. The great thing about him is now we see that he’s very happy to be ridden forwards, we were probably riding him back too far and not giving him a chance. I think he can do anything, really. It’s totally dependent on what the lads want to do. Whether he goes to America, whether he stays around here. I think now we are more confident that we have worked him out.”

On whether Auguste Rodin with take on stable-mate and this year's Derby winner City Of Troy, O'Brien added: The lads will decide that, I'm hoping there will be no need."

Moore said: “Auguste Rodin is a proper horse. Okay, a few times it hasn't happened, but there have been reasons every time. The King George was maybe coming after a hard run in both Derbies, which is a hard thing to do. He is a Group One winner at two, he won four Group Ones last year, and people are always very quick to knock horses. As soon as they get beat, they want to have a go at you. Every time you send them away, they have a pop at that as well. He took me there going very well, and when I asked him, he really showed great courage. He wanted to win. He has been a real good horse and did everything beautifully today – he deserved that."