Kemari Conquers Queen’s Vase

ASCOT, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND – Fresh off his maiden-breaking victory going 11 1/2 furlongs at Yarmouth, Godolphin’s Kemari successfully stretched out even farther to conquer Wednesday’s 1 3/4-mile Queen’s Vase Stakes (G2) at Ascot Racecourse.

After tracking the leaders for much of the running, jockey William Buick pushed Kemari (8/1 odds stateside) to the lead with 2 furlongs remaining and steadily pulled away to defeat the 5/2 favorite Wordsworth by 1 1/2 lengths. The Charlie Appleby-trained son of top sire Dubawi was an expensive yearling purchase, but he according to Appleby, he was difficult to bring around and only just debuted May 13, when he finished second in a 1 1/4-mile Newmarket event.

“I must give the team at home a lot of credit for this,” Appleby said. “Kemari has been a challenging horse during the winter. He was gelded and had his hood on for his first start, but full credit to them, they have done a great job. William praised Kemari highly after that win at Yarmouth. I have to say, I sat on the fence slightly and felt he was a horse who was progressing, but was he progressing quickly enough to be able to step up into today’s league? He has proved me wrong and William right, which is the great thing about having a team such as we have got, we all put our opinions in and hopefully we get the right result. But the horse is definitely a horse who is going the right way.”

Stowell, Benaud, Law Of The Sea, Taipan, Arturo Toscanini, Dancing King, Ruling, Pied Piper, Recovery Run, Golden Flame, and Dirham Emirati completed the order of finish. Zine White and Kyprios scratched, the latter doing so after going down during the pre-race loading process.

Kemari returned $15.60 to win and $4.40 to place. Wordsworth brought back $3 to place. Stowell paid $8.40 to place.