Racing: Owners revel in Hello Youmzain's Ascot win, as Ricky May completes fairytale comeback

Hello Youmzain (far right) takes out the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot yesterday.

Lindsays victorious on big stage after series of setbacks.

Cambridge Stud boss Brendan Lindsay swore they would fight back. Even in the midst of a heartbreaking run of bad luck that saw the famous thoroughbred stud have three stallions die in a matter of months, Lindsay and wife Jo never gave up.

Lindsay vowed one day, the stud they purchased just a few years ago would shine again. Their luck had been so bad, it had to turn.

But even the most confident of men delivering the most defiant of statements in the depths of despair don't think their luck will turn quite the way it happened for the Lindsays at Royal Ascot in the early hours of yesterday.

Hello Youmzain, the outstanding sprinter the Lindsays co-own, won a thrilling Diamond Jubilee Stakes, sporting their gold and black chequered colours.

After the year from hell, this was heaven. New Zealand-owned winners at Royal Ascot are incredibly rare, with any win at the world's most prestigious race meeting something to be treasured.

But the Diamond Jubilee is one of the highlights of Ascot, one Europe's elite sprint races. It has been won by horses such as Danehill, Choisir and Black Caviar.

Like those first two, Hello Youmzain is a stallion, and while he had already won a Group 1 in the Haydock Sprint Cup, yesterday's win was the deal clincher.

It cemented his commercial stallion worth and the beauty is Cambridge Stud already own him, in partnership with French breeding operation Haras d'Etreham, so he can spend the Southern Hemisphere breeding seasons in the Waikato.

After the scarcely believable loss of world champion galloper Roaring Lion and their own leading stallion Tavistock within a few months of each other, the Lindsays have a replacement without having to dive into the treacherous waters of the global stallion market.

"It feels like half of New Zealand was up watching the race given the amount of phone calls and messages we've had," said Lindsay.

"I don't know if any New Zealander has won a Group 1 at Royal Ascot before. It's just amazing."

●Harness racing's fairytale comeback is complete.

Ricky May made sure of that as he saved every centimetre of Addington Raceway he could to get Oaxacan Dream home first yesterday, May's first driving success since all but dying in a race in January.

May suffered from a rare heart problem in a race at Omakau on January 2, slumping in the sulky when leading a race and falling to the track lifeless.

He needed CPR, a helicopter trip to hospital and an operation to survive but resumed his storied career 10 days ago, and yesterday was his first visit to the winner's circle since his shock medical incident.

"It was good to get that one, especially as Benny [good friend Brendon Hill] trains it," says May. "There were a lot of people clapping when I came back to the winner's circle, so it made me kind of realise what it means to other people, too."

May says he feels "back to normal" when driving now and has his eyes set on 3000 career wins in New Zealand, which after yesterday is 50 wins away.