Sixth Godolphin Royal Ascot 2017 success provided by Rare Rhythm

Rare Rhythm gained the third victory of his six-race career when running on strongly to capture the 12-furlong Duke Of Edinburgh Handicap at Royal Ascot on Friday, June 23.
 
The five-year-old son of Dubawi, trained by Charlie Appleby, had not raced since taking part in the same race 12 months ago.
 
William Buick always had Rare Rhythm prominent and raced in second before kicking for home in the straight and winning by two and a quarter lengths from Appeared on good to firm going in 2m 31.15s.
 
Charlie Appleby declared: “Rare Rhythm has been off a long time, but we knew we had got him right.
 
“I was confident coming into this race last year coming off another layoff but it didn’t pan out for us as it was a bit of a messy race.
 
“I thought the ground was key for this horse and that he would like decent ground.
 
“He met with a soft tissue injury after last year and it knocked us out of running him in the November Handicap at Doncaster.
 
“He has twice been to Chelmsford (Racecourse) for a gallop recently and he has also been gelded which has helped him get fitter.
 
“It was a great performance from the team and it is a big team effort – these are the days we are all here for, we haven’t thought of any races for him beyond this stage.”
 
William Buick added: “This was a very good training performance. Rare Rhythm has always had the engine but he got gelded and it’s ended up lighting the horse up a little bit. He just seems more athletic after it. 
 
“He was fit and well coming in to the race and they didn’t go an awfully strong gallop either so I suppose we were in the right place. 
 
“Everyone wanted to get a good position but it didn’t look as though anyone wanted to go and make the running. It’s a hard place to go from the front and win round here but it worked out nicely today and he won well in the end, so he was probably a very deserved winner.
 
“It’s been a great week, but it’s five days - it’s day by day. I’m in a very fortunate position to ride nice horses every day at Royal Ascot.”