Queen Anne Stakes heads stellar first day
Royal Ascot may like to style itself as the epitome of elegance but there is something distinctly in your face about the programme for the first day.
There are seven Group One races spread across the five-day fixture and three of them start Tuesday afternoon’s card. Forty years ago the Queen Anne Stakes was a relatively sedate curtain raiser but the race has been steadily pushed up the pecking order.
It was promoted to Group One status in 2003 and now stands as the premier attraction of this year’s meeting. There are 12 entries left after the six-day declaration stage which includes Goldikova, Rip Van Winkle and last year’s winner, Paco Boy.
He reaffirmed himself as a player at this level when he won the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury last month but connections concede that it may take a career-best performance if this field stands up. Paco Boy has two-and-a-half lengths to make up on Rip Van Winkle, from their run in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood last July, while Goldikova (pictured), the market leader and dual Breeders’ Cup Mile winner, broke the habit of previous seasons by winning first time out, when she beat Byword by a half-length in the Prix D'Ispahan at Longchamp three weeks ago.
The international runners have become an important element of the meeting and the two other championship races on the card emphasise that. Australian horses have dominated the King’s Stand Stakes in recent years and Nicconi will be attempting to match the achievements of Choisir (2003), Takeover Target (2006), Miss Andretti (2007) and Scenic Blast (2009) who have all won this race in recent years.
Nicconi won the Group One Lightning Stakes at Flemington in January, with Starspanglebanner beaten one-and-a-quarter lengths in fourth, and that horse, now trained by Aidan O'Brien, is one of 15 other possible runners of whom the best of the British is Sir Michael Stoute's Kingsgate Native, although last year's runner-up, Fleeting Spirit, is another to consider.
The Classic generation take centre stage in the St James’s Palace Stakes which could bring a rematch of the first three in the 2000 Guineas. Makfi has not run since he beat d**k Turpin by one-and-a-quarter lengths at Newmarket, but the runner-up has since finished in the same position behind Lope De Vega in the Poule D'Essai Des Poulains at Longchamp.
Makfi will have a new jockey for the race with Olivier Peslier, who picked up a valuable spare ride at the meeting in 2006 when Ouija Board won the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, taking over. Peslier gets the chance because Christophe Lemaire, who rode a text-book race in the Guineas, has an association with the Aga Khan, owner of the Alain de Royer-Dupre-trained Siyouni, who finished down the field when favourite for the Poulains but may take his chance in this race.
Canford Cliffs, trained, like d**k Turpin, by Richard Hannon was only third in the Guineas but showed himself to be one of the cream of the three-year-old milers when he won the Irish 2000 Guineas by three lengths. Among the 15 runners is Noble's Promise, trained in America by Ken McPeek, who was last seen finishing fifth to Super Saver in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs last month.
Royal Ascot marks the first meeting where the two-year-old form starts coming together. Hannon’s juveniles have a 29% strike-rate and there is plenty of stable confidence behind Strong Suit to win the Coventry Stakes.
Tags: