Inside Track: A place in Royal Ascot parade ring could have been mine

Could you imagine me in a topper and tails? And in the parade ring at this week’s Royal Ascot meeting? Neither could I.

But, believe it or not, I’d have been given the choice to be there had my name come out of the hat last week.

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The near certainty is I’d be turning it down, much as I wouldn’t be out of place rubbing shoulders with Michael Tabor, Derek Smith and John Magnier, all very rich people who comprise the all-conquering Coolmore team.

I could also be getting a handshake from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, or the late Aga Khan’s representatives, while at the same time trying to avoid being interviewed by TV’s Matt Chapman, who I met a few years ago on his visit to Dundalk Stadium.

Early entries for the race include a couple owned by King Charles.

The Coolmore lads’ horses aren’t in the care of a trainer, but a genius. But more about Aidan O’Brien later.

The reason my name went into the hat was because I’m a member of a syndicate, which if it doesn’t number about one hundred members is not far off it. Six were chosen to travel.

We’ve a six-year-old mare, Independent Expert, with fledgling trainer, Stephen Thorne, in Rush, Co Dublin.

A one-time assistant to Ado McGuinness, Thorne had his first runners late last year, but has since been in the winners’ enclosure over a dozen times, making it a great start to his career.

So impressed was he with Independent Expert’s win at Naas a few weeks ago, he immediately ear-marked her for the Kensington Palace Handicap at the Royal meeting.

That race is the last on tomorrow’s card, and while no betting is available at the time of writing, the probability is the Artist will go off at a decent price.

This being a handicap, it’s unlikely Aidan O’Brien will have a runner, which is just as well for us.

The Ballydoyle maestro can do no wrong right now, having scooped all the big prizes at Epsom a little over a fortnight ago, among them the Derby and the Oaks. And on the Sunday before that, he sent out the winner of the French Derby.

If he wins the Irish equivalent in a few weeks’ time, O’Brien will get another entry in the record books.

No trainer has ever brought off the Derby treble in the same year – with English winner, Lambourn, running for him, this most modest of high achievers is short odds-on to create another piece of history.