Newbury Winner Receives Royal Approval

It was nearly a day of celebration for more than one member of the royal family on the racecourse at Newbury in what has already been a momentous week.

Following on from the christening of Prince George, the child's great-grandmother The Queen had another winner on the Berkshire course, while something of a gamble went just astray on Ravenous, owned and bred by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.

Her Majesty's fast-improving Musical Comedy, an appropriately-bred son of Royal Applause, went off the 11-8 favourite for the Sir Gerald Whent Memorial Nursery and left his rivals toiling by five lengths on very testing ground.

Ravenous, trained by Ralph Beckett, was backed into 8-1 from an opening show of 25s in division one of the Free Bets freebets.co.uk Maiden Stakes and looked a big danger with a furlong to go.

He could not quite keep pace with the Hannon-trained Strait Run (7-2), who had clearly made progress from his debut seventh at Salisbury and managed to shake off the attentions of Godolphin's Flight Officer by half a length.