Poet’s Word Downs Cracksman In the Prince of Wales’s

[Wandering Eyes]

   Sir Michael Stoute had been waiting two years to exceed the late great Sir Henry Cecil’s record of 75 Royal Ascot winners and the genie of Freemason Lodge chose some stage to do it as one of the dyed-in-the-wool improving older horses he is so famed for, Poet’s Word (Ire) (Poet’s Voice {GB}), took the feature G1 Prince of Wales’s S. Sent off the 11-2 second favourite with all the focus naturally on Cracksman (GB) (Frankel {GB}), the G3 Brigadier Gerard S. winner travelled beautifully for James Doyle tracking that 2-5 favourite who gave out contrasting signals from the very beginning with yet another sluggish display to match his Epsom effort. When it came down to a fight in the straight, it was short-lived as Saeed Suhail’s 5-year-old readily brushed him aside passing the two-furlong pole en route to a convincing 2 1/4-length success, with eight lengths back to Hawkbill (Kitten’s Joy) in third. “It’s a relief, as we were stuck on it [75] last year and we’ve been very lucky to have some good horses down the years,” Stoute said. “Maybe Cracksman isn’t at his very best now, but we’ve beaten the others comprehensively and he’s a consistent, brave and sound horse.”

POET’S WORD (IRE), 126, h, 5, by Poet’s Voice (GB)
1st Dam: Whirly Bird (GB) (SP-Eng), by Nashwan
2nd Dam: Inchyre (GB), by Shirley Heights (GB)
3rd Dam: Inchmurrin (Ire), by Lomond
(300,000gns Ylg ’14 TAOCT). O-Saeed Suhail; B-Woodcote Stud Ltd (IRE); T-Sir Michael Stoute; J-James Doyle. £425,325. Lifetime Record: G1SP-Ire & UAE, 15-6-5-1, £1,961,769. *1/2 to Malabar (GB) (Raven’s Pass), MGSW-Eng, $213,277.

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