Reaching High, the King and Queen’s 13-8 favourite, finished last of 20 runners in the Ascot Stakes at Royal Ascot, leaving Charles III without an opening-day winner. Ryan Moore rode the Willie Mullins-trained horse in the 2½-mile race.
The result denied the King and Queen a Royal Ascot success for another year after their last victory in 2023. Reaching High had been expected to contend, but the race ended with Kizlyar, a 25-1 shot for Joseph O’Brien, taking the Ascot Stakes instead.
Royal Ascot and the royal yardstick
Reaching High went off at 13-8, which made the finish more striking than a routine defeat. A horse starting at that price is being backed as the likeliest winner, so a last-place finish in a field of 20 changes the story from one of expectation to one of collapse.
The opening day also fit a wider royal pattern. The King and Queen had been waiting since 2023 for another success at the meeting, when Desert Hero won the King George V handicap. That previous win had set a standard for this summer’s challenge, and Reaching High was the most obvious chance to meet it.
Ryan Moore and Willie Mullins
Ryan Moore, who has 93 Royal winners, was again at the center of the day’s royal focus. He had also been reported to receive a three-day careless riding ban after the St James’s Palace Stakes, where Bow Echo beat Gstaad by a short-head for George Boughey.
Billy Loughnane, 20 years old, rode Bow Echo in that race. The way Bow Echo won after a messy start stood in sharp contrast to Reaching High’s run, where the King and Queen’s horse briefly looked well placed with 600 yards to run before fading badly.
Kizlyar takes the Ascot Stakes
Kizlyar’s win for Joseph O’Brien left the Ascot Stakes with a different storyline from the one built around the royal runner. Reaching High had a luckless run in the same race last year, and this year’s result extended that pattern rather than reversing it.
The immediate consequence is simple: the King and Queen remain without a Royal Ascot win, and Reaching High has now turned a heavily backed chance into a stone-last finish. The unanswered question is why a horse that was still in a promising position with 600 yards left could fade so sharply before the line.
