Chesham Stakes
Listed, Ascot 14:30 £60,000 added, 2yo only, 7f, Class 1
Saturday 20th June 2015

1 Suits You 14/1
2 Ballydoyle 7/4F
3 Sixth Sense 12/1
12 ran Distances: shd, 1¼l, 2¾l
TIME 1m 26.93s (slow by 1.33s)

Chesham Stakes goes to Suits You for Eoin O'Neill & Cristian Demuro, just holding on from Ballydoyle with Sixth Sense 3rd

Suits You

A long-term plan by Eoghan O'Neill came off when Suits You provided the French-based Irishman with a first Royal Ascot success when winning the Chesham Stakes under Cristian Demuro.

"He's very smart and he has been since February," said O'Neill, who moved from Newmarket across the Channel five years ago.

"It has been the plan to come here for a long time. I decided we'd head to this if he won first time out, which he did. He gets into the race because he's qualified for this, being by Youmzain. He'll probably go for a Listed race in Deauville next and then come back to Britain for the Royal Lodge Stakes.

"He's got speed, relaxes and gets a trip. We were punched when Spanish Romance got beaten yesterday, but we got the riding tactics wrong, but I was quite confident today. He's got speed, he relaxes and he gets a trip.

"I thought we were second crossing the line but it's our first Royal Ascot winner and it's wonderful.

"The move to France was down to prize money at the end of the day. I was training lower grade horses on the whole and they struggle to pay their way in England. You have a better programme in France for the lesser horses and, when you get the good one - which I don't get very often, there is plenty of prize money too. I love coming to places like this too.

"Cristian has done a fabulous job. We made a bit of a mistake yesterday in the Albany Stakes, when we followed the American speed, and we didn't want to do that today. He is tough, he's hard and is a proper horse.

"It's great that you have a horse of that quality. Cristian is a great jockey too and take nothing from him - Ryan Moore and himself have ground it out and thankfully we have got there.

"We bought him at La Teste for 12,000 euros and my good friend Adam Solomon, who is a barrister in London, owns half and my wife Melissa the other half. She is a wonderful person, very, very good at home - she helps out fantastically in the yard and we would be lost without her."

Cristian Demuro added: "That's amazing - it's unbelievable, fantastic. Listening to the people screaming like that is amazing.

"I won on him last time - he's a fantastic horse, running once and winning - and he looked very green. When I passed the horse in front, he stopped and it looks like Ryan came back but it's just because my horse stopped.

"I got crossed and had to stop a little and then I saw Ballydoyle coming, but my horse is very strong. I have won at the Shergar Cup before but to win at this meeting is amazing."

Ballydoyle
© Caroline Norris

Aidan O'Brien was delighted with the effort of Ballydoyle, runner-up as 7/4 favourite. The Galileo filly was beaten a short-head, doing her best work for Ryan Moore at the finish of the seven-furlong contest.

"She ran great," he said. "She's a bit of a baby still, and she'll progress. She's a lovely filly and a mile will be no problem. She'll come forward from this run today."

Mark Johnston was equally pleased with the effort of Sixth Sense, another length and a quarter third. "We said when he won over five furlongs at Pontefract [in April] that he'd be a Chesham horse, and we weren't too far wrong.

"I thought when the others went past that we might be dropping back to six, but James [McDonald, rider] said that he'd be happy sticking to seven. He stayed well enough, the other two just did it faster."

Chesham Stakes
£60,000 added, 2yo only, 7f, Class 1
12 ran
Going: Good to Firm, Firm in places