Royal Ascot 2025: Venetian Sun wins the Albany Stakes
Venetian Sun (7-1) ran out a dominant winner of the Albany Stakes, the opener on the fourth day of Royal Ascot 2025.
Liverpool FC fan and trainer Karl Burke has another good crop of juveniles this season but had seen a few run below par at Ascot this week as Irish trainer Aidan O'Brien mopped up many of the contests. But Venetian Sun, who had made a taking debut when winning at Carlisle over five furlongs last month, provided welcome relief to give him another Royal Ascot winner.
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The two-year-old Starman filly seemed to be badly drawn in stall one with many winners this week coming from the opposite side of the track. But as Nandita cut out the running towards the stands' side, Venetian Sun was always travelling well under Clifford Lee in the pack towards the centre of the track. But she came through smoothly to take over the lead two out and stayed on really well, stepped up to six furlongs, to score by a length-and-a-half from George Boughey's Awaken (66-1). Irish raider Balantina (40-1) was a length back in third and Fitzella (4-1) a further half-a-length adrift in fourth. While Ballydoyle trainer O'Brien had seen Gstaad, True Love and Charles Darwin all land juvenile contests in good style earlier in the week, his 15-8 favourite Signora couldn't follow suit and was never a factor before finishing ninth.
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But it was all about Venetian Sun, who was given quotes ranging from 16-1 with Betfred and 33-1 with Skybet for next season's Betfred 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket. Burke won this race with Dandalla in 2020 and in the colours of Brighton & Hove Albion owner Tony Bloom, the North Yorkshire handler was grabbing a seventh success at Royal Ascot and a first of the week.
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An impressed Burke said: Burke added: 'I think she's a very special filly. The work she has done at home, I haven't had a two-year-old filly do work like it; just the last six weeks. I haven't had a two-year-old filly work like her. She was kicking older group horses out at home – and I'm talking 110-rated horses. She's kicking older group horses out the way at home. I worked a good, old work horse with her about a month ago or just after her debut and I had to work her with another good one that I knew was reliable and she did the same to him and I'm talking 110 rated horses. I think she's very special."
Jockey Lee was winning for the second time at Royal Ascot after Burke's Significantly landed the Palace Of Holyrood Handicap in 2021. He told ITV Racing: "When she ran first time at Carlisle, she done that very nicely. James at home, Lucy's boyfriend, he rides her every day and he said to me, before the season even started, we had a really good filly on our hands. When she ran at Carlisle, very stiff track, she was very babyish that day.
"She probably wasn't quite switched on but after that first run James said she'd come on nearly 20lbs from that run. We're delighted to get one for the team and another Royal Ascot winner. You think you come here with a really good chance but so do 20 other runners in the race. You need a bit of a lottery unless you're riding the top quality horses but we knew we had a good filly on our hands. Mr Burke has given me plenty of chances all over the country, and in different countries, and hopefully it pays off in time."
Owner Bloom added: "We were concerned about the draw but we knew how good a horse Venetian Sun is. Karl Burke didn't stop telling us and she's run unbelievable, to win in this field at Royal Ascot so we're all delighted. Huge belief (in her). Obviously he sees her every day and has seen the work that she can do and she's improved so much from her first run at Carlisle.
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"It was a stiff track at Carlisle and she was in front for quite a long way though so she's shown a lot of improvement at home since that run and looking at her run today I'm confident she can go further. It's always amazing to be at Royal Ascot with a runner let alone with a winner so really, really pleased. It's a beautiful day and a beautiful start to the day.
'Yes, 7-1 looks a good price now, and she was 12-1 this morning as well. Given the confidence Karl gave us, we had to have a decent bet. We'll leave it to the bossman, but we're looking ahead to next season and to a potential 1000 Guineas, so that would be something really to look forward to.
'The last six weeks her work at home has been outstanding, so we came with confidence. We got a very bad draw – the worst draw – and things didn't necessarily go right for her in the race and she won easily, so we are super-confident that she is an amazing horse. We are hopeful she will get a mile next year. We ended up getting a better price because of the draw, but we weren't happy with the draw because we knew we needed a lot to go right. I'm not saying a lot did go right, but she won.'
On runner-up, trainer Boughey said: 'Delighted with Awaken. She's a filly who is still very raw and green. That (performance) was not unexpected, though she was 66-1. I was delighted with her work into the run and she's a filly is a nice replacement for Believing for Highclere. It's great to have a good horse for them and long may it continue.'
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On future plan, he added: 'I don't know, we shall see. She's still very raw and weak at the moment. We will just get her home, see how she is and make a plan – but all the usual races; she will probably stay at six for the moment, she could go to the July meeting for the Duchess of Cambridge. She's a good filly.'
Tom Marquand, who rode the Donnacha O'Brien-trained third-home Balantina, said: 'A huge run. A little bit frustrating she stepped a touch slow, like she did her first run, but ran massive. I thought it was a good salvage performance to go and pick up a place, as it was tough work from where she was.'
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