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Two winners and a Group 1 second at the prestigious meeting for the Derrinstown Stud resident

What a week for Awtaad at Royal Ascot! The Derrinstown Stud resident got on the board with two winners of large-field valuable handicaps and a Group 1 runner-up from only a handful of runners at the prestigious meeting.

Awtaad’s outstanding week began with Ascending cruising into contention and then bravely battling to victory in the 20-runner Ascot Stakes on Tuesday for trainer Henry de Bromhead and owner Chris Jones.

Ascending, bred by Karis Bloodstock Ltd and Rathbarry Stud, has now won four races and earned just shy of £125,000 in prize-money.

Ethical Diamond, bred by WJ Kennedy and trained by Willie Mullins for the HOS Syndicate, brought up the double for Awtaad by staying on resolutely to score by two lengths in the 18-runner Duke of Edinburgh Stakes on Friday.

Ethical Diamond won a Limerick maiden for original trainer Michael William O’Meara at three before being sold to Mullins and talent scout Harold Kirk for 320,000gns at the Tattersalls July Sale. He has developed into a high-class dual-purpose performer for his new connections, proving once again the versatility of his sire’s stock.

Awtaad was also to the fore at this year’s royal meeting thanks to his dual Group 1-winning son Anmaat finding only Ombudsman too good in one of the week's showcase races, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes on Wednesday.

Anmaat, bred by Ringfort Stud and owned by Shadwell, has now won more than £1.5 million in prize-money and finished in the top three on all but one of his 17 starts. He is a contender for all the top ten-furlong races this summer, with the defence of his Champion Stakes title at Ascot in October the main aim.

Awtaad is proving himself one of the best value sires in the world. The Classic-winning son of Cape Cross, also responsible for multiple US Grade 1-winning mare Anisette and other Pattern scorers Al Qareem, Create Belief and Diamil, stood at Derrinstown Stud this year at a fee of just €7,500.
 

Top image: Ascending | Below image: Ethical Diamond