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Royal Ascot Heroine Crimson Advocate Set for 2024 Debut
5/16/2024
Weaver Trainee Seeks Return to Europe in Gulfstream’s Roar Stakes
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL -- Trainer George Weaver had rented a top hat and full-length suit to Britain’s Royal Ascot meeting last summer when his Crimson Advocate won the Queen Mary (G2) Stakes in a thrilling finish.
Weaver is hoping to be similarly outfitted for a return trip in June to England’s most prestigious course for the King Charles III, a Grade 1 five-furlong turf stakes June 18, with the speedy filly.
“I might have to buy one this time,” Weaver quipped.
Weaver’s European plans will all hinge on Crimson Advocate’s performance Saturday in the $95,000 Roar Stakes at Gulfstream Park, where the 3-year-old daughter of Nyquist is scheduled to make her first start of the year.
“We expect her to run well,” Weaver said. “She’s training well.”
Crimson Advocate, now owned by Tameem Binhamad KH Al-Thani, punched her ticket to Ascot last year when she won Gulfstream’s Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies at five furlongs on turf.
That South Florida victory earned the filly automatic entry into the Queen Mary, a five-furlong turf dash that Crimson Advocate won by a head bob, a finish so close that Weaver wasn’t sure if she had prevailed.
“We were watching on the apron, and I couldn’t really tell,” Weaver said. “When it’s that close, I assume I got beat.”
The photo proved otherwise, and Weaver became only the third U.S. trainer to record a victory at the prestigious track, following Wesley Ward and Hall of Famer Mark Casse.
“We still think about it all the time,” Weaver said of his memories of that race. “It was a beautiful moment for the filly, myself, my family, and the owners. Ascot is a special place.”
Weaver would like to go back. But getting there with Crimson Advocate has been a bit of an ordeal. The filly was scratched from two races – one at Gulfstream and the other at Keeneland – when races there were taken off the turf.
“She should have run already,” Weaver said. “So, we need to get her a race.”
Crimson Advocate will finally get her chance in the five-furlong Roar and will be ridden by Edwin Gonzalez. She is the only filly in the field of nine.
The Roar anchors an 11-race card that also features the $95,000 Monroe Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile turf test for fillies and mares. First race post Saturday is 1:10 p.m.