Plenty of Aussie interest at Ascot

This year’s Royal Ascot carnival could see major involvement from Australian stables.

Ontrack Racing’s 2019 Royal Ascot tour is sold out and participants look likely to have plenty of Australians to cheer on said Ontrack’s Grant Morgan.

“It’s looking likely Magic Millions winner Houtzen and triple Group One winner Trapeze Artist will run at Royal Ascot, while leading trainer Chris Waller has flagged Ascot ambitions for three-year-old colts Autumn Sun, Zousain and Lean Mean Machine.

“While there’s a lot of water to flow under the bridge before Royal Ascot, it’s great to have so many great Australian sprinters pencilled in.

“Houtzen and Trapeze Artist are the most likely participants, while The Autumn Sun was inoculated this week for a potential Royal Ascot trip,” said Grant Morgan.

Houtzen is trained on the Gold Coast by one of Ontrack’s main Queensland trainers Toby Edmonds and the trainer is just back from an information gathering exercise.

“I flew over to check out stabling at Newmarket and to take a look at Royal Ascot and it’s all go,” said Toby Edmonds.

“Houtzen will fly out late in March and we’ve arranged stabling at Newmarket.

“It was an amazing experience to visit Newmarket and see Royal Ascot first hand and the whole stable is excited about having its first ever runner at an international meeting,” said Toby Edmonds.

Grant Morgan said the Royal Ascot experience is always fantastic, but to have a runner at the meeting takes it to another level.

“We have had some great tours there, but nothing compared with having Brazen Beau there to compete in the Diamond Jubilee back in 2015.

“It is a truly unforgettable experience having a runner at Royal Ascot and Ontrack will be proud to cheer on Toby with Houtzen as well as Bert Vieira with Trapeze Artist and Chris Waller with one of his colts,” said Grant Morgan.