REPORT FROM ASCOT:IT TOOK one of the great mares of modern racing history to deny the Richard Hughes-Richard Hannon team a perfect opening Royal Ascot afternoon but that's what Goldikova managed by winning the Queen Anne Stakes yesterday.
The neck with which the French superstar beat Paco Boy earned Goldikova a ninth Group One triumph, just one short of another French legend, Miesque, who Freddie Head rode to a pair of Breeders Cup successes in the 1980s.
Head has already trained Goldikova to emulate that feat and now she is just 7 to 4 to rewrite the Breeders Cup record books with a third Mile triumph in Kentucky next October.
It needed the world’s officially highest-rated racehorse to get the better of Paco Boy who was closing rapidly on the run to the line after a less than clear passage that underlined Oliver Peslier’s judgement in kicking for home past the struggling Rip Van Winkle at the two-furlong pole.
Goldikova was hanging on in the final stages and Peslier admitted: “I maybe went a little early but I knew they would be waiting with Paco Boy.”
A return to France for two Group One’s at Deauville, including the Prix Jacques Le Marois, is next on Goldikova’s agenda and only for her it would have been a total red-letter day for the Paco Boy team.
Canford Cliffs justified all of Richard Hughes’s faith when leading home a Hannon one-two in the St James’s Palace Stakes, after which Strong Suit put in as remarkable a Coventry Stakes winning performance as Canford Cliffs achieved last year.
Hughes endured a “nightmare” on Strong Suit as he was repeatedly denied a run and his cause looked lost when Elzaam shot for home at the furlong pole.
However, when finally seeing daylight, the Hannon-trained colt showed remarkable powers of recovery and nailed his rival on the line by a nose.
“With a clear run he wouldn’t have come off the bride. He’s a machine,” Hughes admitted afterwards.
Samuel Morse did best of Aidan O’Brien’s two Coventry runners in fourth and the champion trainer was also out of luck with his juvenile team in the concluding Windsor Castle Stakes as the 20 to 1 Petronius Maximus finished so fast from the rear that he would have won in another couple of strides.
Victory went to Richard Fahey’s Marine Commando who had to switch in the closing stages but still had enough in hand of his Irish rival on the line.
In comparison, Canford Cliffs, for whom Hughes had been fearful of meeting trouble in running, landed the St James’s Palace Stakes in straight-forward fashion from his stable companion.
The Irish Guineas winner sliced through the field to overhaul Dick Turpin with Hearts Of Fire in third. Beethoven did best of Aidan O’Brien’s trio in sixth but Steinbeck only managed to beat his stable companion Encompassing home.
“Being on Canford Cliffs is like getting into a Rolls Royce instead of a Morris Minor. You just sit on him and everything is smooth and electric,” Hughes said of his dual-Group One winning colt who will next take part in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood. Equiano repeated his 2008 triumph in the Kings Stand Stakes when making most of the running for Michael Hills despite stumbling coming out of the stalls while Junior was another all-the-way winner of the two-and -a-half mile Ascot Stakes. John Queally’s Elyaadi, last early, stayed on to be runner-up.
