RACING:ROYAL ASCOT'S 300-year history has seen many epic clashes and some memorable coronations but rarely has the potential for both been as obvious as it is going into the first day of the 2011 festival. Since it was Queen Anne that first brought racing to this corner of Berkshire in 1711, it is appropriate that the opening race commemorating her features the mouth-watering prospect of Goldikova versus Canford Cliffs.
Later in the day, the stunning Guineas winner Frankel puts his unbeaten record on the line in the St James’s Palace Stakes where the newly knighted Henry Cecil could bring the house down if welcoming back a 73rd success at the famous festival.
The day’s other Group One, the Kings Stand Stakes, might not have the world’s highest-rated sprinter, Black Caviar, but it does have runners from a remarkable seven different countries that only adds to the cosmopolitan air of what is one of the most eagerly awaited weeks of the racing year.
Sole Power and Arctic are the two Irish runners in the Kings Stand, part of what is just a six-strong Irish raiding party on day one. Sole Power is a proven Group One winner but recent rain turned the ground good to soft yesterday and that threatens Eddie Lynam’s runner’s participation.
“There’s only one King’s Stand Stakes but he won’t run if the word soft is in the going description,” Lynam said yesterday. “We’d love to run but if the ground isn’t genuinely good, we probably won’t.” Star Witness has been chasing Black Caviar around Australia in recent months and the sprinters from “down under” are always a threat to their northern hemisphere opposition.
Ireland’s best chance of a winner could come in the Group Two Coventry Stakes where Aidan O’Brien is aiming at a sixth victory in the big juvenile prize.
The subsequent dual-Guineas winner Henrythenavigator scored four years ago and while Power may not turn out to be quite in that class he impressed in his last start in the Marble Hill Stakes and should relish a stiff six furlongs.
O’Brien runs his Irish Derby and Irish Champion Stakes winner Cape Blanco in the Queen Anne and rarely can a colt of his calibre have been so overlooked in the build up to a Group One prize.
Cape Blanco is dropping back to a mile for the first time in his career and should be a prominent figure given his record of racing from the front and proving difficult to pass.
But the gutsy chestnut has never had class like Goldikova and Canford Cliffs racing in his slipstream. Goldikova has been a true great of the European racing scene for the last four years, notching up 13 Group One wins including last year’s Queen Anne, and who looked as good as ever when reappearing in the Prix DIspahan last month.
Her trainer Freddie Head was another worried about the going yesterday but otherwise was confident, saying: “Canford Cliffs is going to have to be at his very best to best us. The only worry would be the ground. I hope it does not get too soft.”
Richard Hannon just missed out on Goldikova in this race last year with Paco Boy but rates Canford Cliffs the best he has ever trained.
“We are under no illusions how tough it will be to beat Goldikova but she cannot possibly be getting any better at the age of six and we will sit a bit closer to the pace this time,” he said.
Frankel has already been widely described as the best horse that has gone through the hands of Henry Cecil after a spectacular six-length success in the Guineas that had racing historians reaching back decades for comparative performances.
He faces eight opponents today including Dream Ahead who was officially rated his equal as a juvenile. Ballydoyle is represented by Zoffany who reappeared with a Group Three second to Bewitched at Leopardstown. All eyes will be on Frankel, though, and he’s unlikely to disappoint. The Willie Mullins-trained Rattan is the Irish hope in the two-and-a-half-mile Ascot Stakes but it may be wise to side with Zigato.
