Carry The Flag heads the field for the juvenile five-furlong sprint on the final day of Royal Ascot 2026. Aidan O’Brien’s colt sets the standard in a race that can still shape the trainers’ trophy. Joseph O’Brien has one runner, Star Prospect, in a field that also includes several unbeaten home-trained contenders.
Carry The Flag Leads the Market
Carry The Flag brings rock-solid form behind Great Barrier Reef, who won the Coventry Stakes here on Tuesday. That line gives Aidan O’Brien a strong hand in a sprint where the margins have already been set by the week’s earlier juvenile form.
Star Prospect is the main complication. Joseph O’Brien’s runner beat Carry The Flag into second at the Curragh in April when both colts were making their racecourse debuts, so the market leader cannot rely on reputation alone.
Unbeaten Rivals Wait
Orthodox, Flight Signal and Where Love Lives are unbeaten and sit among the home-trained contenders prominent in the betting. Force Noir adds another layer after recently transferring from Amo Racing’s main Irish stable, and Wesley Ward has three runners while trying to follow up Friday evening’s success with Bacio.
The meeting’s shape matters here because Royal Ascot traditionally opens with three Group Ones in the first four races. Carry The Flag is running late on a card that has already asked a lot of the leading trainers, and the race comes before the Golden Gates Stakes Handicap, the last handicap of the meeting.
O’Brien And Ward On The Card
Aidan O’Brien’s interest does not stop with Carry The Flag. He also runs Amadeus Mozart in the Golden Gates Stakes Handicap, while Joseph O’Brien sends Perisher after a low-key win at Naas and a recent record that has already included two of the last three Queen Alex races.
The rest of the supporting form is straightforward enough. Amadeus Mozart was a seven-length second to Endorsement in a Listed event last time out, Endorsement was the runner-up in the Hampton Court Stakes here earlier in the week, and Lost Boys and Sahara King were first and second in the London Gold Cup at Newbury last month.
Whether Carry The Flag can turn that Great Barrier Reef form into a win is the line that matters now. Star Prospect has already beaten him once, and that is the frame for Saturday’s race: a colt who heads the field, a rival who has done it before, and trainers still chasing points on Royal Ascot 2026’s final day.
