LAZZAT ... MORE DRAMA AT ROYAL ASCOT FOR THE GOLDEN EAGLE RUNNER-UP

By Graham Potter | Sunday, June 22, 2025

The Jerome Reynier trained Lazzat is not averse to a bit of drama.

Back in November last year Lazzat finished a close-up second behind the William Haggas trained Lake Forest in an all-international, action-packed finish in the $10 million Golden Eagle at Rosehill.

But that was not the end of that story.

A double protest followed with the connections of Lazzat lodging an objection against the winner while the connections of the fifth placed Stephi Magnetica threw in a protest against Lazzat.

Post race activity was full of hustle, bustle and intrigue as the various sets of connections argued their respective cases.

A review of all of the evidence by the stewards followed with the stewards being fairly quick to dismiss both protests, ordering that the original placings would stand, although two of the jockeys involved came away very much lighter in the pocket with Cieren Fallon and Antonio Orani … the riders of Lake Forest and Lazzat being fined $100 000 and $30 000 respectively for the part they played in the late race scrimmaging.

Fast forward seven-and-a-half months and four runs later to Royal Ascot for Lazzat and, in particular, Lazzat’s participation in the Group 1 Queen Elizabet 11 Jubilee Stakes, and you will find the Golden Eagle runner-up involved in more post-race drama … albeit in very different circumstances to the episode at Rosehill.

This time, in a race where most Australian eyes were initially following Storm Boy (who again was very disappointing), there was no doubting the result as Lazzat was a strong winner under James Doyle, seeing off the determined threat of the Japanese challenger Satono Reve to claim the win in decisive fashion.

But that was not the end of the story.

On Lazzat’s way back to scale … drama.

While moving into place to put what looked like the cloth onto the winner, the person held the cloth up suddenly … like a matador … in the face of Lazzat who, understandably, immediately baulked, dropped Doyle, swung away and proceeded to take off, riderless, going back down the track at a relatively, sedate gallop with ears pricked.

Several attempts to head Lazzat off … and nearly fifteen minutes later … he was finally taking in hand and brought back to scale where Doyle could finally weigh in.

That was not before one last moment of theatre though.
With Lazzat seemingly ready to surrender, trotting up pretty close to the outside running rail, a handler moved to Lazzat’s inside, thankfully alongside and not behind the horse, when Lazzat double barrelled, kicking out with both back legs in violent fashion.

The handler dodged away next to him as Lazzat’s hind legs thumped into the running rain without doing any damage … but then, thankfully, that spilt second of danger was past and all of the post-race drama was over.

If you were looking forward to Lazzat’s return to Australia you might be disappointed, in the short term at least as his trainer Jerome Reynier didn’t mention any ‘down under’ options in his immediate plans for the horse.

"I'd love to take on Ka Ying Rising," Reynier told Racing Post.

Ka Ying Rising is the David Hayes trained superstar and current The Everest favourite, but that was not the clash on Reynier’s mind, although nothing has been set in stone.

"Maybe at the end of the year we can face him in his own town in the Hong Kong Sprint,” continued Reynier.

"The July Cup is coming soon, so we'll bring him back home and probably wait to defend his crown in the Prix Maurice de Gheest. Then there's the Sprint Cup and then the Champion Sprint back here (in October),” concluded Reynier.

Whatever happens, down under or somewhere else, on the basis of what’s gone before, the path Lazzat takes is not likely to be a boring one.

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