Rogue Millennium surprises in Duke of Cambridge to give Tom Clover his biggest winner

Some people scream, some cry, while others do both, but the experience of owning a Royal Ascot winner left Tony Elliott utterly exhausted and wanting his bed.

Elliott, head honcho of the Rogues Gallery syndicate, did not even make it on to the winner's rostrum. Instead, he let his syndicate members savour Rogue Millennium's big moment in the Group 2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes while he leaned wearily against the paddock railings.

"It's incredible," said Elliott when asked how it felt to be a Royal Ascot-winning owner. "But I'm absolutely exhausted to be fair. I just want to go home to bed now, I've had enough!

"It's a long journey and when you get it right it's incredible. There's 30 or 40 people involved but I never ask. There are people here today who haven't got shares but we just all join in together and we've had a dream come true today."

It was no less than Elliott, his syndicate and winning trainer Tom Clover deserved. They stumped up £13,125 last week to run in the Duke of Cambridge over a mile, despite Rogue Millennium having never raced at shorter than 1m2f previously. If that wasn't bold enough, they also decided to substitute jockey Jack Mitchell for Danny Tudhope, who got it so right from off the pace, despite there being no great urgency from the front runners early on.

Mentioned in the same breath as Jamie Spencer when it comes to excelling over Ascot's straight mile, Tudhope came with a relentless and, more importantly, uninterrupted run which propelled Rogue Millennium to the front.

"I'm very grateful to the owners for putting me up today because usually she's Jack Mitchell's ride," said the winning rider. "It's hard to believe she's only ever raced over a mile and a quarter and further. Obviously bringing her back in trip was the right thing to do.

"They went steady and I was a bit concerned, so I wanted to get her out and rolling and the plan worked out. I'm just delighted to get another winner on the board at this place, it's amazing."

For Clover, in his eighth year training, it was a landmark first success at Royal Ascot. Clearly a popular member of the training fraternity in Newmarket, Clover had plenty of familiar faces, including Sir Mark Prescott, offering their congratulations.

"It takes some explaining," said Clover, his emotions all over Berkshire. "You dream about it all year round and to buy this filly for the Rogues for 35,000gns has just been amazing. I love this filly and she's really improved from three to four."

Rogue Millennium (Daniel Tudhope) beats Random Harvest (Saffie Osborne) in the Duke Of Cambridge StakesCredit: Edward Whitaker

With just five winners on the board for 2023 at the start of the day, Clover admitted he had been feeling the heat this season, but he was shouldering a considerably lighter load after registering his first success at Group level.

"We haven't had a great year so far," he admitted. "We've had too many seconds and not enough winners. Luckily, we had a bit of luck today. She just travels so strong and has got quicker this year. We now have a Group 1 filly on our hands.

"This is career defining. I can now say I'm a Royal Ascot-winning trainer. It gets overused but it really does mean everything."

For the second year running, Random Harvest filled the runner-up spot at Royal Ascot, but connections could hardly have been prouder.

"This time last year she was just touched off in the Kensington Palace off a handicap mark of 81, so she’s come a long way since then," said trainer Ed Walker. "I’m gutted, but very proud of her. Saffie [Osborne, rider] is class. She’s gutted but gave her a very good run.

“I reckon we'll go to the Falmouth next, why not? There’s nothing to lose and she’s getting better with every run."

Osborne added: "She’s shown that she’s plenty capable of competing at this level and hopefully another level up. Ed has done an amazing job with her, he’s been so patient, and hopefully she's going to reap the rewards of that this year."

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