‘Johnny V’ targets Royal Ascot after recording 5,000-winner milestone

America’s hall of fame jockey, who became the 28th rider in history to record 5,000 career winners on Friday night at Belmont Park, was in the saddle when Da Hoss incredibly won a second Breeders’ Cup Mile 15 years ago for Yorkshire-born Michael Dickinson, who enjoyed a glittering training career in America after rewriting jump racing’s record books on this side of the Atlantic.

Dickinson was always meticulous in his instructions and Da Hoss meant the world to him – this was a horse who won a first Breeders’ Cup Mile in 1996 before suffering an injury that nearly ended his career.

He had just one warm-up race before winning in 1998 at Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby, by a head under an inspired Velazquez, who is now brimming with confidence ahead of the Queen Anne Stakes.

This is the one-mile race for champion horses aged four and above and which was won 12 months ago by Frankel for the late and Sir Henry Cecil.

The winner of the 2011 Kentucky Derby – one of the three races that constitute the Triple Crown in the USA – Animal Kingdom is, potentially, the greatest American-trained horse to run in Britain since another Kentucky Derby winner, Reigh Count, failed in Berkshire 
in 1929.

It will be the stunning chestnut’s final start, and victory will make Animal Kingdom a considerably more valuable stallion commodity when he starts his stud career at Arrowfield in Australia.

A son of the Brazilian-bred Leroidesanimaux, Animal Kingdom has a fascinatingly mixed pedigree, including German bloodlines, and is of such interest that Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley Stud has also purchased a substantial interest in him.

After winning the Kentucky Derby, and finishing second in the Preakness Stakes, he confirmed his reputation – and versatility on different surfaces – by winning the Dubai World Cup, international racing’s most valuable prize, in late March on the Tapeta synthetic surface pioneered by the aforementioned Dickinson.

Young jockey Joel Rosario was in the saddle in Dubai but trainer Graham Motion chose to reunite Velazquez – universally known as ‘Johnny V’ – with Animal Kingdom for the first time in 16 months because of his past experience riding at Ascot.

Velazquez, who has sat on such horses as Da Hoss, Lemon Drop Kid, Kitten’s Joy, Rags to Riches and Uncle Mo, was asked if Animal Kingdom was special when he put the five-year-old through his paces at the Berkshire track recently.

“Definitely – by far,” he said. “They don’t come that often like that.

“For a horse to come and run on different surfaces and have done what he has done, there are aren’t that many horses.

“The only horse I know so far to have done so well on Polytrack, dirt and then on grass is last year’s ‘Horse of the Year’, Wise Dan.

“That’s the only one I’ve seen to have done as well on three different surfaces. It’s incredible.

“The special horses give you a great feel when you’re on top of them. You hope they can stay that way by the day of the race.”

American-based jockeys have been scoffed at by the traditionalists in the past when they struggled to transfer their clinical timing on the level dirt ovals to the varied British courses.

However, this is no Johnny-come-lately, as the 42-year-old rode half-a-dozen Godolphin horses at the 2000 Royal meeting when Frankie Dettori was injured.

He was then back nine years later to win two races at the Royal meeting for US trainer Wesley Ward and even slipped in another brief visit in 2011.

Speaking slightly accented English, no doubt reduced by spending more than half his life in America, the likeable Puerto Rican is unfazed by a return and holds Steve Cauthen in the highest regard – the ‘Kentucky Kid’ enjoyed many great victories at Royal Ascot.

“It’s great, it’s very exciting to be here again,” said Velazquez.

“Obviously they are running the opposite way, which is very different for us, and you’ve got to get adjusted to it.

“I’ve ridden it a couple of times now but to get adjusted right away, I was a little bit in shock, but you walk the course and you watch the races.

“Unfortunately, the first time I came I was second or third, and I was hungry to come back again and win a race. Luckily, I came back a few years ago and it was very nice to win.

“To win any race here means a lot and I’d love to win another one here. I won’t do anything different. I know what I’m up against, but I’m here to do a job and he’s a great horse to do it with.”

Locally, Richard Fahey has entered Gabrial while David O’Meara is due to saddle Penitent, who will be ridden by the in-form Danny Tudhope.

But Animal Kingdom will take all the beating at Royal Ascot with his famous jockey, who is 
far more accomplished now than in 1998 when Da Hoss made history with a last-gasp surge to the line.

“It started at 10 in the morning when I went to see Johnny Velazquez, and it was emotional for me,” recalled Dickinson.

“I went to Johnny and I said, ‘I don’t know what you’ve got for other rides today, but this horse is going to win for you.’ I told him with tears in my eyes because I knew our crew had done a marvellous job.

“We just felt he was going to win, even when the other horse passed him, I still thought he was going to win. He never let us down. Some horse. Some ride.”

Stoute leads the trainers’ field

Leading trainers at Royal Ascot:

Trainer Winners

Sir Michael Stoute 65

Aidan O’Brien 37

Mark Johnston 35

Saeed bin Suroor 34

John Gosden 32

Richard Hannon 32

Paul Cole 20

Mick Channon 17

Clive Brittain 16

David Elsworth 15

Dermot Weld 15

Luca Cumani 11

Royal Ascot facts

£5,000,000 in prize-money, up £500,000 from 2012.

280,268 was the attendance in 2012.

13 big screens will be on site during the meeting.

175 stable boxes will accommodate an average of 100 runners per day.

52,000 spears of English asparagus will be eaten.

13,398 parking spaces will be occupied.

2006 was the year when new grandstand was opened.

301 years since racing first took place on Ascot Heath.

151 years since Prince of Wales’s Stakes was first run.

100 tonnes of ice used.

75 Royal Ascot winners for the late Sir Henry Cecil.

47 winners for Frankie Dettori.

30 races at the meeting, all shown on Channel 4.