No royal winner for the King as Saturday runners are unplaced

The wait for a royal winner continues as the King drew a blank with his two runners on Saturday.

Educator was the first horse to run in the famous purple, red and gold silks since they transferred to His Majesty, with the colt finishing second in a Salisbury handicap on Thursday.

Hopes were high that either King’s Lynn at Ascot or Mellow Yellow at Newmarket could be the one to get the monarch off the mark.

However, neither could land a significant blow in their respective races, with Andrew Balding’s sprinter fourth in the Listed Oakman Inns Rous Stakes, while William Haggas’ filly Mellow Yellow failed to stay the 12-furlong trip and had to settle for sixth in the British Stallion Studs EBF Premier Fillies’ Handicap.

The King’s racing adviser, John Warren, was at Newmarket to watch Mellow Yellow, who was sent off the 5-4 favourite, and believes the daughter of Dubawi will now drop back to a mile and a quarter, while King’s Lynn will be targeted at the Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes back at the royal racecourse on British Champions Day.

He said: “We don’t think she stayed a mile and a half. She’s a very nice filly still and we’ll bring her back to a mile and a quarter next time.

“The idea of today was to find out if she did stay and William (Buick, jockey) felt it found her out a little bit coming up the hill.

“Hopefully that has set King’s Lynn up for Champions Day. He’s such a genuine horse, he always runs a very nice race. He’s been off for 100-odd days, so today he needed to just blow away the cobwebs.

On the attention surrounding the wait for a first winner for the King, Warren added: “It’s going to happen at some point.”