Shaquille nets Carnarvon prize for Camacho

Royal Ascot on the radar for Newbury victor.

Julie Camacho looks set to send Shaquille to Royal Ascot for the Commonwealth Cup after a decisive all-the-way win in the Carnarvon Stakes at Newbury.

James Doyle’s mount was completing a four-timer after a couple of novice wins last year and a soft-ground success in a decent handicap at Newmarket to open his three-year-old campaign.

Shaquille was clearly fresh and well, having almost dispatched his rider on the chute from the parade ring to the track and bounced out in the six-furlong contest.

He did not see another horse, with odds-on Noble Style restrained in the early part of the race and Desert Cop, who tracked the leader all the way, fending off the reminder to take second.

It was a wonder that an emotional Camacho even saw the winner, she explained: “I’ve only just arrived. We have had a terrible journey down here.

“It means an awful lot, especially since we’ve had such a rough trip down. It was bit hectic. They shut the A34 and we ended up in Oxford, reversing up streets. It should have taken four hours and we left at 8.15am.

“Newbury has never been a lucky track for us. It is very competitive, but we have managed to have winners at other tracks.

“When you are so far wrong in the ratings, you wonder if you should be here, but he showed he does deserve to be.

“He did it well and he’s a homebred, so it means a bit more.”

She added: “He has taken a while to pull him up. At Newmarket he did everything wrong and still managed to win. He must have some engine to do what he did at Newmarket. It wasn’t the plan to make all, but if nothing wanted to go on, there was no point in fighting him.

“We will go home and think about Ascot, but I think the plan will be to go there.”

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