The Queen of South African racing, Mary Slack, upstaged Her Majesty on Thursday when her Jane Chapple-Hyam-trained colt Claymore (New Bay) with Adam Kirby up beat the odds on favourite Reach For The Moon (Sea The Stars) in the Group 3 Hampton Court Stakes.
A massive roar had arisen from the crowd, aware of the significance of a Royal victory at the Platinum Jubilee meeting, as Reach For The Moon ranged upsides, but Claymore had soon extinguished it as he fended off the challenge and went on to win by 1,75 lengths.
It is a big year for the Queen, who on February 6 became the first monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee after seventy years of service.
She has unfortunately been unable to attend any of the racing this week.
However, she would have had high expectations of seeing her colours cross the line first in the Hampton Court Stakes.
It would have given her a 25th Royal Ascot win.
Instead it was the famous black colours with a scarlet cap of Mary Slack which were carried to victory.
It might well have been Slack’s first Royal Ascot victory, but definitely not the colours’ first.
Her famous black with a scarlet cap colours were registered by Isaac “Jack” Barnato Joel in 1900 and gifted to her by his son Harry “Jim” Joel many years later.
The colours have been carried to three Epsom Derby victories by Sunstar in 1911, Humorist in 1921 and Royal Palace in 1967.
Sunstar and Humorist were owned by Jack Joel and Royal Palace was owned by Jim Joel.
Jack’s brother Solomon (“Solly”) Joel, who had pink colours with green stripes, also won the Derby in 1915 with Pommern.
Royal Palace (Ballymoss), among those Joel-owned Derby winners, won at the Royal Ascot meeting, victorious in the Prince Of Wales Stakes by a whisker from Dewan with the great Sir Ivor beaten 0,75 lengths into third. The race was rated 48th in the Racing Post’s 2005 listing of “100 greatest races.”
Royal Palace went on to win Ascot’s most prestigious race later that season, the King George V1 and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, despite having been injured during the race and retired immediately afterwards.
It was most fitting that he won that race because from 1972 to 2006 this great race was sponsored by the diamond company De Beers and for that period was known as the King George V1 and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes.
Diamonds created the link between the Joel and Oppenheimer families.
Jack Joel’s legendary uncle Barney Barnato took him and his brothers Solly and Woolf under his wing and they made a fortune with the Barnato Diamond Mining Company in Kimberley.
Barnato’s diamond companies formed a merger with the companies of Cecil John Rhodes in 1888 to create De Beers Consolidated Mines.
Diamond dealer Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, Mary’s grandfather, became chairman of De Beers in 1929.
Ernest’s success was partly founded upon what is today known as the Cullinan mine (Premier Mine). After the discovery of the Cullinan diamond, the largest rough diamond ever discovered, in 1905, the owner of this mine refused to be taken over by the dominant De Beers cartel. Instead the mine started selling to the independent dealers, the brothers Ernest and Bernard Oppenheimer.
Ernest’s companies became strong competition to De Beers. They were eventually absorbed by De Beers but by that stage he had the upper hand.
Ernest was knighted in 1921 as the foremost diamond expert in the world and for his philanthropy.
He took control of De Beers in 1927 and became chairman two years later.
In 1917, he had launched the Anglo American Corporation, with financial assistance from J. P. Morgan.
In 2011 Anglo American bought the Oppenheimer family’s 40% stake in De Beers and thus increased their ownership of De Beers to 85%.
The Cullinan Diamond forms part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom so the Queen’s disappointment yesterday might have been tempered by the knowledge that the victor has strong associations with those jewels.
In South Africa the victory was seen as just reward for somebody who has done so much for the industry for so long.
Mike de Kock led the praises, saying, “Best wishes to Mary Slack for her Royal Ascot win. I cannot think of anyone who deserves it more!”
Picture: Claymore wins at Royal Ascot. Picture: Steve Cargill (Racing Post)
