Ombudsman impresses at Newmarket as Royal Ascot return nears

Ombudsman sharpened his Royal Ascot bid with a strong gallop on Newmarket’s Al Bahathri Polytrack, a clear sign the three-time Group 1 winner is moving through the same build-up that carried him through last season.

Gary Forster was in the saddle for the Wednesday workout, and the plan is already mapped out: a warm-up run before a return to Royal Ascot next month. That sequence matters because it is not a fresh experiment. It is the route Ombudsman followed last year, when the Godolphin-owned star arrived at the meeting primed to deliver at the top level rather than needing a deep return run to find himself.

The stakes around that preparation are higher now because Ombudsman’s profile has continued to rise. After Royal Ascot in 2025, he was awarded a rating of 128, a mark that placed him as the highest-rated older horse in Europe. For a horse already proven in Group 1 company, that figure turns each public workout into more than a routine piece of stable business. It becomes evidence of where he stands against the rest of the division, and whether the race target is still being approached with the right degree of intent.

Newmarket remains the natural stage for that kind of signal. Britain’s racing headquarters has two Flat racecourses, the Rowley Mile and the July Course, both known for their long, wide straight tracks and for the major morning gallops that can tell the market plenty before a horse ever runs in public. Ombudsman has been a familiar face in those Newmarket gallops reports before, with previous build-ups linking him to Champions Day, the Queen Anne and the Juddmonte International. That pattern suggests the yard has long used him as a horse for elite targets, not mid-level stepping stones.

The latest Newmarket exercise was part of a broader morning that also featured John and Thady Gosden’s Champions Day hopes on Warren Hill from 8am, before the yards opened at 9am, with Ombudsman, Field of Gold and Trawlerman due to be among the names on show. Another unbeaten Roger Varian filly also turned heads ahead of a weekend assignment, but Ombudsman was the horse carrying the clearest message: the Ascot path is already under way, and the next run is being treated as a launchpad, not a test.