Shamexpress (NZ) Ready for Royal Ascot

Kiwi bred Karaka graduate Shamexpress (NZ) produced a winning trial performance down the Flemington straight this morning, pleasing his connections ahead of his trip to the Royal Ascot meeting in England.

The winner of Australia’s premier sprint race this season, the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap, Shamexpress (O’Reilly x Volkrose) is being aimed at the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes (1000m) on the first day of the Royal Ascot Meeting on Tuesday 18 June.

Shamexpress will be looking to make it a winning double for New Zealand in the Gr.1 King’s Stand Stakes.

The three-year-old’s trainer Danny O’Brien has outlined that the King’s Stand Stakes could be the first race of a UK campaign which could also see the son of O’Reilly target other races including the Group 1 July Cup.

Shamexpress leaves for England next Wednesday and O’Brien was very happy with his final trial earlier today.

“It was great to get him on the course proper and see him open up a bit down the straight,” commented O’Brien.

“The horse really needs to be race fit when he gets on the plane and that will bring him right up to the mark. We missed the Sydney and Queensland Carnivals so we could have him 110% focused on England and everything has gone to plan so far so we just need to get the traveling out of the way now.

“He will arrive in England 13 days before the race so for the first week he will just find his feet and acclimatise and I will give him a serious piece of work four or five days before the race.”

O’Brien is no stranger to the pressure of Royal Ascot having taken Glamour Puss and Star Witness to the famous meeting and believes that experience can help him capture an elusive royal win.

Should Shamexpress win the King’s Stand Stakes, it would complete a winning double for New Zealand with Little Bridge (NZ) (Faltaat) winning the race last year in a spectacular performance. 

New Zealand also celebrated Royal Ascot success last year with So You Think (NZ) (High Chaparral) when he won the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes just a day after Little Bridge’s history-making Group 1 win. 

Shamexpress was purchased as a yearling by Danny O’Brien from Richard Rutherford’s Beltana Stud at New Zealand Bloodstock’s 2011 Karaka Premier Sale for $130,000.

To view the video of Shamexpress winning this morning’s trial and hear the thoughts of his trainer Danny O’Brien, click here.