Top Hats at the Ready

Mon 18 May 2026

Winner 64 of 2026: SONG OF THE CLYDE, trained by Clive Cox and ridden by Hector Crouch. The listed class ‘Highclere Castle Gin Carnarvon Stakes’ over 6f at Newbury.

It was a very warm renewal of the Carnarvon Stakes, and there was a lot of talk about the 6/4 favourite ‘Albert Einstein’ in the prestigious purple silks of Derrick Smith and partners, and the Godolphin-owned, last year’s Middle Park winner, ‘Wise Approach’, in the lead up to the race.

Song of the Clyde ran a good race on his seasonal reappearance at the Craven Meeting, finishing 4th in a very competitive Handicap while carrying top weight. Clive was extremely happy with how our son of Sergei Prokofiev, has trained since his latest outing, but we were of course wary of the strong opposition, with the Carnarvon Stakes a proven Commonwealth Cup trial over the years.

His starting gate didn’t look ideal beforehand, with the more fancied drawn towards the far side rail. But Hector, who gave him an excellent ride, kept him straight, and his high cruising speed saw him right up there at the pace and even dominate a small group towards the stand-side rail.

Plenty of runners couldn't sustain the strong pace that Albert Einstein and ourselves set, and never threatened to get involved. The eventual second was looking for company when asked for more effort and slightly drifted towards our colt, before they both, head by head, nose by nose, charged towards the line. It was a great battle between two very talented horses, but Song of the Clyde wasn’t for passing and prevailed at the line. A huge victory for our genuine and incredibly tough 3-year-old, with the Commonwealth Cup now firmly on the horizon.

Clive post race: "I'm very happy and we can look forward to even better days than last year. It's exciting and I don't see why we wouldn't roll the dice with Royal Ascot. He's got every reason he should be there and I'd be disappointed if he wasn't."

Read more about the fantastic victory here:

Racing Post Reports.

https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/pdf/tdn/tdn260517e.pdf

Watch the full race replay via the link here: https://www.attheraces.com/racecard/Newbury/16-May-2026/1510

Timeform rated his career best performance with a 109: "Built on the promise of his return, overcoming the rise in class and putting himself on course for a crack at the Commonwealth Cup, a race in which his stable also has Coppull, more required at that level but clearly going the right way; raced near side, led overall, shaken up 2f out, hung left 1f out, found extra."

To view and purchase the official winning pictures, please follow the link below:

https://www.stevencargill.com/p/84749vfk/C386207797/x16th-may-2026-work-progress?pcp=121