Asfoora completes crucial gallop at Flemington as Henry Dwyer-trained mare prepares to defend Royal Ascot crown

Royal Ascot champion Asfoora has tuned up for her Group 1 King Charles III crown defence with a slick straight gallop at Flemington on Friday.

Royal Ascot champion Asfoora has tuned up for her Group 1 King Charles III crown defence with a slick straight gallop at Flemington on Friday.

Asfoora, trained by Henry Dwyer, will be floated to Sydney next week before another European odyssey, starting at Royal Ascot on June 18.

The short turnaround from long haul flight, “38 to 40 hours door to door”, to race day the only concern for Dwyer, trying to become the first international trainer to defend a Royal Ascot title.

• PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet’s team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW!

“That would be a nice (achievement),” Dwyer said.

“There’s another stat, no Australian horse has ever won a race in France, no Australian-trained horse has ever raced in Ireland, there’s all sorts of little things we could tick off along the way for a bit of posterity I suppose.

“When you train 40 horses or something at Ballarat you’re not probably going to be training Melbourne Cup winners, little victories like breaking new ground is what it’s all about, she was able to do it last year and we could tick off a couple more boxes this year.”

Asfoora clocked a solid 44.8 seconds for the last 800m and finished alongside Winnasedge, trained by Nick Ryan, in the 900m course proper jump out.

Royal Ascot champion Asfoora has tuned up for her Group 1 King Charles III crown defence with a slick straight gallop at Flemington on Friday. Story: @gilbertgardiner 👇https://t.co/tjMqVBIMRSpic.twitter.com/s9SV4B4vD0

— News Racing (@superracing) May 23, 2025

• Limited options force Ruakaka to launch Sandown raid

“I thought she was really good this morning, we needed to come here and have a solid hit out,” Dwyer said.

“She hasn’t raced for, I think the Sangster was four weeks ago, and she’s now three weeks before Ascot, we’re in a tricky position where we needed to freshen up after what was a bit of a flat run last time probably because of a busy time before it.

“We had a week or 10 days of doing nothing with her and built up to this trial, we tried to use it as a bit of a quasi race to get one in the bank before she goes.”

Asfoora has done it!!! She wins the King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot! You beauty! 🇦🇺 @HDwyerRacingpic.twitter.com/1WMat9Voye

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) June 18, 2024

• Doomben Cup tips and betting strategies from our experts

Asfoora is likely to gallop only once in England before the King Charles III, with Dwyer mindful of the travel toll.

“Last year, from experience, we know she was a bit flattened by the trip, we had four weeks before her first run at Haydock and another three weeks after that to fine tune her,” Dwyer said.

“Whereas this year we haven’t got that luxury … she’s flying in and racing two weeks later.

“She needed the hit out, the intention was to go out there, travel for 800m and give her a push the last 100m.

“She seems to have pulled up really well from it, she’s fit, it’s just a matter of having an unbelievably lucky trip like we did last year, nothing went wrong and there were no setbacks.”

Dwyer has all but locked in champion jockey Oisin Murphy to ride Asfoora again at Royal Ascot.

Originally published as Asfoora completes crucial gallop at Flemington as Henry Dwyer-trained mare prepares to defend Royal Ascot crown