18th June 2025
The Times
There are places whose very name evoke the racing game; Epsom, Newmarket, Cheltenham, York and Melbourne for the Cup. But until the five year old speedball American Affair battled home in the King Charles III Stakes, it had not normally been associated with Glasgow.
Yet American Affair is trained 15 miles south of the city by the splendidly unreconstructed Jim Goldie and bred just to the north from one of the two thoroughbred mares of owners John and Wendy McGrandles. “He’s probably the only horse here with a Glasgow postcode in his passport! I’ve been involved with horses since I was six. My wife is a veterinary surgeon – and we’re off to the Highland Show tomorrow with sheep. This horse is the biggest winner we’ve had, yes. And the horse’s stable name is Charlie and he’s won the King Charles!
It was also the biggest winner, and first at Royal Ascot in the career of Jim Goldie whose first training success was back in 1993 after race riding exploits which included falling remounting and still winning a race at the Lauderdale point to point. That same resilience sees him now set to break last year’s record season.
American Afffair is a typical tribute to Goldie’s method. Unraced as a two year old, as Wendy McGrandles insists all her horses should be, he has now run 22 races in three seasons and has climbed up from a lowly rating of 67 to 105 and now higher. “I’ve trained the family for two generations,” said the trainer whose granddaughter Alex is the horses daily rider and was leading him round the paddock yesterday. “So it’s very sweet”
“He’s just getting faster, we went seven furlongs at Wetherby in his maiden, we’ve learnt to run him over the right trip, we took him back to five and he’s just getting better and better.”
The same might be applied to jockey 43 yr old jockey Paul Mulrennan who with 57 winners and over £900k in prize money could be set for a record season. This was his second Royal Ascot winner, the first since 2013 when his snow-white hair was a fetching shade of black. “Jim is so good at finding the key to these horses,” he said of the trainer. “I had a real handful today for the first three furlongs but then had a good run through and the horse was really determined.”
Royal Ascot was sun baked and glorious but it was good to show that the place does not just belong to the biggest hitters. Not that those teams didn’t claim their share. The Coolmore team won the Coventry with the hugely impressive Gstaad only for Aidan O’Brien to tell us that he had something much better at home called Albert Einstein. The Emir of Qatar’s Wathnan Racing operation took the last two races with Haatem and the freshly bought French Master and the Juddmonte colours, immortalised by Frankel ,gave the day’s highlight in the St James Palace when Field Of Gold was nothing short of magnificent
This was rightly billed as the showdown between the English, Irish and French Guineas winners. Henry Matisse having won the French, Ruling Court the English having got first jump on Field Of Gold who had then left his rivals looking leaden legged at the Curragh. At Ascot he was even more decisive. Officer and Windlord doing forcing the pace for Coolmore and Juddmonte there was no danger of Field Of Gold getting caught flat footed as at Newmarket and Juddmonte’s newly retained rider had the delight of big race success at the first time of asking.
“Good horses make it look easy and this is the best I have ever sat on,” said Colin Keane afterwards. In the coming months we are likely to see a lot more of the talent six Irish champion and we also need to appreciate Field Of Gold while we can. For this big striking grey is clearly the best of his generation and may well prove the best miler we have seen for a while.
That is if he stays running over a mile. Trainer John Gosden is set to next run the colt in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood but after that he will surely move up to the 10 furlong trip of the Juddmonte Stakes itself at York. “He is by my father’s stallion,” said the late Prince Khalid Abdullah’s son Prince Saud afterwards, “so this is extra special.”
Such progress makes racing seem serene but there was plenty at Ascot to reassure you that outsiders can still give you a major run for your money. Do Or Do Not and Coppull, second and third to Gstaad started at 80-1 and 66-1, before which 14-1 Docklands inched out 5-2 favourite Rosallion despite being a course favourite and so much fancied by his Australian owners that jockey Mark Zahra said “I thought he must be Aussie for all the screams.”
It was enough to give the place that unlikeliest of slogans. “Ascot belongs to you.”