Space Age King George V Stakes at Royal Ascot

Thursday 18 June 2015 18:24, UK

Space Age made almost every yard to win the King George V Stakes at Royal Ascot under a fine ride from William Buick.

Breaking from the widest stall of all in the hands of William Buick, he soon got to the lead and gradually tacked across to spearhead the field.

Buick began to up the tempo before the home turn and it was quickly apparent he had a number of his rivals on the stretch.

Scottish and Marma's Boy both saw out the race strongly, but the Charlie Appleby-trained Space Age (9-1) had enough in the tank to hold them off by a length and a quarter and three-quarters of a length respectively.

The well-fancied King Bolete was fourth, but the heavily-supported favourite Dissolution, backed to provide Ryan Moore with a record ninth winner of the week, was ultimately well beaten.

"I had a very difficult draw, but Charlie's great and left it to me," said Buick.

"This horse made the running last time when he won, he's very game and tough and we got an uncontested lead, which was a help.

"This is all for Charlie, it's his first Royal Ascot winner and fair play to him. It's great for the team as everyone works so hard all year round and this is the cream on the cake.

"It takes a Group horse to win this race and given natural improvement and progression he'll get there."

Appleby said: "It's amazing. It's been a big learning curve. I came down here last year and I was a boy amongst the men.

"I purposely went away at the end of last year and said I wanted to have a good go at winning one of the handicaps down here. We purposely looked after this horse and he's repaid us today.

"It was a fantastic ride by William. He was the horse I've liked all week and he's done nothing but thrive since the start of the season, but when I saw the draw my heart did sink."

Image: Queen Elizabeth II, The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Andrew, Duke of York and Princess Beatrice arrive by carriage before the first race during Ladies Day
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Image: Frankie Dettori celebrates with another flying dismount
Image: Curvy leads favourite Pleascach in the Ribblesdale Stakes
Image: And becomes winner number seven for the remarkable Ryan Moore
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Image: But runs on strongly against the rail to claim a famous win
Image: Grand National winning jockey Graham Lee is all smiles
Image: As is the winning trainer who looks as though he'd prefer a handshake to a hug
Image: There'll be no hugging during the trophy presentation either thank you very much
Image: No longer Royal Ascot, just the Ryan Moore show as he wins the Britannia on War Envoy
Image: A close-up of the Aidan O'Brien trained winner
Image: Space Age takes the finale for William Buick and Charlie Appleby