Karl Burke’s Shareholder made it two from two with a snug success in the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes on day three of Royal Ascot.
The Karl Burke-trained son of Just In Time was the second juvenile winner at this year's Royal Meeting for connections, following up Leovanni's success in Wednesday's Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes.
Like Leonvanni, Shareholder scored in convincing style, beating the Andrew Balding-trained Tropical Storm and Adrian Murray's Arizona Blaze by a length and a head.
Karl Burke's winner was bought for €460,000 at a breeze-up sale in France by Wathnan Racing's bloodstock advisor Richard Brown and arrived at Royal Ascot having made a winning debut at Beverley twelve days ago.
"Shareholder did a hell of a lot wrong the first time, but I knew he'd step forward from that, even physically," said Burke. "Although he was two or three kilos lighter coming here today than Beverley, he looked bigger and stronger. Great credit must go to Richard Brown; I know he had plenty of money to spend, but he's bought very well.
"Richard was quietly confident that he'd be able to turn the 7lb around with Sheikh Rashid's horse [Moving Force], but I think this is a very good horse, and he'll stay six furlongs as well. I thought we were going to get nabbed a furlong out, and then he's gone again. I love the way he stretched again in the last 50 yards."
When asked about the future, he added: "I would say he's speed. I think he will definitely stay six furlongs and I'm sure he'll be a Commonwealth Cup horse. I would think we'll step him up next time but I'll speak to the guys. I don't think he'll be a Guineas horse, he hasn't shown us that, although he relaxed very well today, so I suppose he has a chance."
Brown, racing manager for owners Wathnan Racing, said: "It is very hard as you are up against breeding operations which have been going for 30 or 40 years. That really is the way to get the Derby-type horses, so we said if we could get some sharp juveniles, it would give us some action coming through. So with Olly Tait, we put together a proposal to buy some breeze-up horses, which we did, with a view to maybe having a couple that could get to Ascot.
"What has happened in the past two days, you couldn't even dream it would go like this. All credit to Karl Burke and his team. It is important to mention Richard Morgan-Evans and his team in Newmarket. Every horse we buy goes to Richard and they have a tailor-made, individual programme which involves immediate turnout in paddocks, and giving them that recovery time. Richard is a very important part of the process."
"It is usually said that it's too tight a turnaround to get a horse from the Arqana sale to Royal Ascot, but we like a challenge and I thought this was the horse to do it."
"Shareholder is still learning. I tried to keep a lid on him for as long as possible and wanted to give him time to get organised," said Doyle, who was riding his second Royal Ascot winner in the colours this week.
"His debut was a bit messy at Beverley – it is a hard place to teach a horse, but he learned plenty. As we know, those smaller tracks get plenty of people there and it was like a mini–Royal Ascot. So, he'd seen pretty much all of this, and he took it very well.
"He missed the break a fraction - not nearly as badly as he did at Beverley, but he showed that speed to put himself in behind the leaders. He took time to get balanced up but, once he did, he always felt as though he had enough in the tank to keep going.
"He's got a big engine. A big thank you to Karl Burke – he has produced these horses lovely, which isn't an easy thing to do. He was very confident, Karl, so when he is confident you respect his opinion."
