Goldikova crowned in Queen Anne Stakes
The Queen Anne Stakes had been billed as the highlight of not just the first day of Royal Ascot but the meeting as a whole and it did not disappoint.
The Group One race brought together Goldikova, Rip Van Winkle and last year’s winner Paco Boy in a field of 10 and the first question to be answered was whether Goldikova would consent to being loaded into the starting stalls, after her reluctance at Longchamp last month before she won the Prix D'Ispahan, but she caused no problems this time.
Although the stalls were placed in the centre of the track Ahmed Ajtebi elected to bring Calming Influence over to the stands’ rail where he was joined in the lead by Rip Van Winkle, who was running a little too freely for Johnny Murtgah. Behind them Goldikova was running smoothly for Oliver Peslier.
Having assessed his position, with Rip Van Winkle already travelling under the first signs of pressure and Paco Boy still stuck behind horses, the Frenchman decided to make his play with less than two furlongs to run. The only horse who could cover the run was Paco Boy, but Richard Hughes had to weave a path between horses and only got a clear run hitting the furlong pole.
From there Paco Boy began to charge down the track and was cutting Goldikova’s lead all the way to the line, although the mare did appear to be idling in front, as she held on to win by a head from Paco Boy with Dream Eater in third. Rip Van Winkle was a major disappointment in sixth, on a day when the Aidan O’Brien runners seemed to be back to the slump in form of the spring.
There was a definite spring in the step of Freddie Head, celebrating his first Royal Ascot victory as a trainer, who said he was worried through a final furlong that must have seemed like an eternity for some of Goldikova’s supporters. “This is one of the greatest moments of my life, winning at Royal Ascot is such a fantastic thing and especially with a mare like that,” Head said. “I was very scared when Paco Boy came there, I didn’t know what we had in hand and didn’t know if she’d respond and keep going.”
Despite being a six-time champion jockey of France in his riding days, Head did not give Peslier, who was winning on Goldikova for the ninth time, any riding instructions. “Olivier is the rider and he does what he wants and she was relaxed through the race and then had a perfect run through, perhaps she got there a bit early in the end.
“She’s very special and it’s rare that you can ride a horse of that calibre in so many different ways. You can come early with her like today or you can wait like she did in America. She keeps on fighting and finding something and was not even blowing five minutes after the race.”
Goldikova became the first mare to win the Queen Anne and Head is already planning for a tilt at a record third victory in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs in November, but with at least two races in France beforehand. “I expect she will go to Deauville for the two races, the Prix Rothschild and Prix Jacques Le Marois, that she won last year. The Breeders’ Cup is the main target but we would love to win the Jacques Le Marois again.”
This was Goldikova’s ninth victory in a Group One race, which puts her just one behind Miesque, the great miling mare whom Head rode for François Boutin in the 1980s. The comparisons are obvious, even if Head finds them odious. “It is unfair, they’re quite different,” he said. “Miesque was a brilliant two-year-old, a brilliant three-year-old winning the Guineas and the Poules D’Essai. She [Goldikova] took a bit more time in coming but I think she’s tougher, she stays more than Miesque and I think she’s easier to ride.”
There were certainly no complaints from Peslier, who said: “When we start I just like the cover behind one horse. She was very relaxed and maybe I came a little bit early but she’s a strong filly. I kept a little bit of power for the final furlong. I knew Paco Boy would wait a long time and when I looked behind me, I saw no horses near and at the furlong pole I just had to keep going.”
The race was run in just 0.53seconds outside the course record but the connections of Paco Boy did not see defeat as a stain on the horse’s record. “We’re very, very pleased, he’s run a super race. I think he thinks he’s won,” Richard Hannon Jnr, assistant trainer to his father Richard, said. “Richard [Hughes] did say to me that he thought he had her, but we just didn’t quite get there. She’s probably the best race mare we have ever seen.”
Seeing her is one thing, catching her is something completely different.
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