Royal Ascot to Shape Spring Carnival Markets

Performances at Royal Ascot this week are set to sharpen Racing Victoria’s thinking around international targets for the 2026 Melbourne Spring Carnival, with the Gold Cup, Hardwicke Stakes and Prince Of Wales’s Stakes all likely to provide clues for future Australian visitors. RV head of racing Paul Bloodworth will head to the United Kingdom next month to continue discussions with connections of possible Cox Plate, Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup contenders, but several names already command attention before the Royal meeting unfolds. Bloodworth said Thursday’s Gold Cup looked a particularly strong edition and that any horse able to perform well in it should have the right profile to be effective in a race such as the Melbourne Cup. He also pointed to Saturday’s Hardwicke Stakes as a familiar guide for Australian selectors, noting that a horse running well there is naturally viewed as a suitable Melbourne prospect. The Cox Plate watchlist includes Gstaad, who finished an agonising second in Tuesday's St James’s Palace Stakes, and Almaqam, who lines up in Wednesday’s Gr1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes. Bloodworth described Almaqam (see below) as “an absolutely perfect Cox Plate horse” and said he hoped trainer Ed Walker and owner Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum might consider Moonee Valley as an option, even though the horse faces a serious task against the likes of Ombudsman and Daryz at Ascot. For the Melbourne Cup, Australian Bloodstock’s Al Riffa remains of obvious interest after his luckless seventh last year, although Bloodworth acknowledged he would again be high in the weights if he returned. The Gold Cup nominations also include Rahiebb, Carmers and Furthur, with Rahiebb especially prominent in Bloodworth’s thinking. He said the St Leger runner-up looked an ideal Melbourne Cup type and had returned impressively to win the Yorkshire Cup first-up, although victory at Ascot could push him beyond realistic reach from both ratings and weight perspectives. Carmers has already put a Melbourne Cup dream on the table after winning over 3200m at Listed level last start, while Furthur brings direct Flemington experience after finishing 11th in last year’s Cup. The coming days at Ascot may not decide Melbourne’s spring visitors outright, but they will help reveal which European stayers and middle-distance horses are worth pursuing most seriously.