Daryz and Ombudsman set for Royal Ascot Prince of Wales’s clash
Daryz and Ombudsman will meet in a nine-runner Prince of Wales’s Stakes, with the defending winner chasing the race’s first repeat since 1994-95.
Royal Ascot’s biggest older-horse test has kept its shape, and that is what makes Wednesday’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes matter. Daryz and Ombudsman will face each other in a nine-runner Group 1 over 1m2f at 4.20pm, with no late withdrawals to dilute a race that already looks like a championship final.
Ombudsman carries the burden of history as well as form. Last year’s winner is trying to become the first horse to win the Prince of Wales’s Stakes twice in a row since Muhtarram in 1994-95, a detail that gives the race a real lineage and a real target. He arrives having already landed the 2026 Dubai Turf and Brigadier Gerard Stakes, which means this is not a case of a defending champion hanging on by reputation. He is arriving with momentum.
Daryz is the one who changes the tone of the race. The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe hero brings elite international form from France and turns the contest into more than a title defence. Over a mile and a quarter, that kind of class can force even the best older horses to race on the back foot, and that is why the Daryz-Ombudsman pairing is the centerpiece of the day rather than just one more Group 1 name on the card.
The supporting cast gives the clash more weight, not less. Minnie Hauk, a multiple Group 1 scorer, remains in contention, while Andrew Balding’s Kalpana and Ed Walker’s Almaqam are still among the confirmed runners. Nine horses in total means there is enough quality for a genuine tactical race, not a procession, and enough depth that either favorite will have to earn every inch of the prize money.
That prize is substantial. The Prince of Wales’s Stakes is one of two Royal Ascot races worth £1 million, and it sits within a 2026 prize-money plan that lifts all eight Group 1 races at the meeting to at least £700,000. Ascot has put the money where the prestige is, and this renewal should justify it. If Ombudsman repeats, he steps into rare company. If Daryz takes him down, the Ascot hierarchy gets a new name at the top.
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