Miss Lucifer. The gelding sustained his first defeat later that month when he came home seventh in a handicap at Haydock Park. He failed to win again in 2007, finishing no better that fourth in seven subsequent races. At the end of October he returned to the Tattersalls sales ring and was bought for 16,000 guineas by the trainer David Nicholls. The gelding was taken into training by Nicholls at Sessay and entered the ownership of Dab Hand Racing. 2008: four-year-old season In 2008 Regal Parade failed to win in his first five races but finished second on three occasions. He was then sent to Royal Ascot on 20 June to contest the Buckingham Palace Stakes, a seven furlong handicap and went off at odds of 25/1 in a 28-runner field. Ridden by the apprentice jockey Ahmed Ajtebi he took the lead a furlong from the finish and won by half a length from the six-year-old Dhaular Dhar. Regal Parade ran third in the Bunbury Cup at Newmarket and was unplaced in a valuable handicap at Goodwood before being off the course for seven weeks. The apprentice William Carson rode him when he returned on 20 September for the Ayr Gold Cup over six furlongs (a distance over which he had never previously run) on heavy ground in which he carried a weight of 122 pounds and started at odds of 18/1 in a 27-runner field. After being restrained in the early stages he made strong progress in the last quarter mile, went to the front a furlong out and came home two and a quarter lengths clear of his rivals. Nicholls commented "One of the owners booked William. I had never seen him before we met in the parade ring, and I told him to ride the horse with plenty of confidence and he gave him a great ride" while Carson said "My grandfather never won the Ayr Gold Cup but he finished second once and he thought he had won!" On his only other start of the year Regal Parade was stepped up in class for the Group 3 Bengough Stakes at Ascot in October and finished fourth. 2009: five-year-old season On 28 March Regal Parade began his 2009 campaign by running sixth in a minor race at Kempton and then finished second to Asset when favourite for the Leicestershire Stakes four weeks later. At York Racecourse on