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Henry de Bromhead enhanced his already impressive record on the flat in Britain when Ascending kept on stoutly to land the Ascot Stakes.
Whilst all eyes were on the Willie Mullins -trained Reaching High, who sported the colours of HM The King and HM The Queen, Ascending scaled new heights for trainer Henry De Bromhead and jockey Billy Lee.
As Ryan Moore was all dressed up with nowhere to go on the Royal runner, Billy Lee swept to the front at the furlong marker on Ascending, who from there on in, showed a tenacious attitude to fend off fellow Irish raider Nurburgring by a neck.
Comfort Zone finished back in second, with Leinster in third, making it a two-three-four for trainer Joseph O’Brien, who was left ruing what could have been.
De Bromhead said: “I am delighted. I wanted to go for the Copper Horse Stakes; I thought we had a great chance, but we didn’t get in and someone put us in this race, and we won! Happy days.
“Ascending is a star. He was bought to go hurdling and ran very well over hurdles, but I think he never really loved it, so I said we’d try going back on the Flat. David Roach, who works for me, said, ‘there’s a good one in this lad on the Flat’, so we started going that route. I think we'll stay on the Flat – he seems to love it.
“Billy said he got knocked down after a furlong, so he opted to go out and get a bit of light, and the horse travelled beautifully.
“He gave him a super ride; he knew he had a kick so he kicked a bit earlier than he’d planned, but he just said he’d try it and it worked well. Any of these big races when you are fortunate enough to train good horses is amazing, and I’ve been lucky.”
Lee added: “If you weren’t travelling, you get thrown into the middle of the track; it’s just the fact that Ascending was going so easily and took me into the race that I was able to keep things smooth.
“I was lucky to get on him when he won at Dundalk. He won really well, and I thought it was a good performance in Cork over his minimum trip.
“I was confident off that run that, if he did get the trip, he would be very competitive. It was a good performance from the horse and Henry had him spot-on.
“Henry has been a great supporter of mine over the past two or three years and it’s great to be riding winners, especially for him and here at Ascot.”
On what it was like to have another winner at Royal Ascot, Lee added: “It has been a long time between drinks [Settle For Bay in 2018 Royal Hunt Cup] - you like to be coming here with chances, but I love this week and I love coming, and it’s great to get one on the board.”
