Royal Ascot Opener Delivers in Spades

With the exception of favoured short-course specialist Battaash (Dark Angel) who finished fourth in the Gr1 King’s Stand Stakes (5 furlongs), it was a pretty good day all round for the crowd at Royal Ascot’s opening extravaganza. Even then, with winner Oxted (Mayson) strongly supported, it was a popular middle leg of the day’s three Group 1 races. The opening race on the card, the Gr1 Queen Anne Stakes (8 furlongs), appeared a foregone conclusion and was run pretty much to order, with top miler Palace Pier (Kingman) winning as expected at deep odds-on despite facing a strong late challenge from Ballydoyle’s Lope Y Fernandez (Lope de Vega). Attention then turned to the Gr1 St James’s Palace Stakes, also run over a mile, where trainer Jim Bolger’s family-owned Poetic Flare was expected to return to his winning English 2,000 Guineas form after finishing runner-up in Ireland’s 2,000 Guineas. Flirting with each-way odds, the son of Darley’s Dawn Approach (New Approach) gave his rivals a 4.25-length drubbing, proving himself to be the best 3YO colt in Europe. Group 1-winning runner-up Lucky Vega (Lope de Vega) will now head to Australia where he will join the growing stallion cluster at Yulong in Victoria.