Nashwa to run in Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot

Tony Kelshaw
October 18, 2023 8:00 pm

Mile contest preferred to the Champion Stakes over 10 furlongs in testing conditions.

Connections have confirmed that Nashwa will run in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot on Saturday.

John and Thady Gosden’s multiple Group One winner is to be aimed at the mile contest, rather than the Qipco Champion Stakes over 10 furlongs.

Owner Imad Alsagar’s Blue Diamond Stud posted on Twitter, now known as X: “Confirmed: Nashwa will run in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes @Ascot on Saturday.”

The five-year-old secured her latest elite-level success in the Falmouth Stakes over a mile at Newmarket in July.

She has since been placed in the Nassau Stakes, the Juddmonte International and the Irish Champion Stakes, all over an extra two furlongs.

However, jockey Hollie Doyle has no fears about dropping back in distance.

She said this week: “I think she’s very versatile and very effective whatever the ground and whatever the trip.

“You need horses like her, she’s carried me now for the past two years and she always produces the goods.”

Confirmed: Nashwa will run in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes @Ascot on Saturday pic.twitter.com/j6Nl8ub7Zg
— Blue Diamond Stud (@BlueDiamondStd) October 18, 2023

Doyle will also partner another old favourite in Trueshan in the Qipco British Champions Long Distance Cup, who has won that race for the past three years.

He heads to Ascot on the back of victories in the Doncaster Cup and the Prix Du Cadran at ParisLongchamp.

“It would be pretty remarkable to do it for the fourth time but he seems better than ever, so fingers crossed,” the rider told Sky Sports Racing.

“The way the year started out, it was a bit touch and go at one point with his performances early on, but they sorted him out, found the key to him again and he’s had a new lease of life.

“In the Cadran, we found another way of being able to ride him and that’s great. I think all of my rides won’t mind any cut in the ground and he’ll be happy even if it’s a deluge.

Doyle’s Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes mount Saint Lawrence is a longshot but reported to be in fine spirits.

She added: “He won the Wokingham very nicely and he was just touched off in a Group One in France which was heartbreaking, but that was on quite slow ground, so hopefully the soft ground won’t be too much of an issue for him.

“We know he’s got a good race in him and he just needs things to fall right. He’s in excellent form, his work’s been really solid and he looks a picture.”