ROYAL ASCOT:THE START of Royal Ascot 2010 features runners from America, Australia, South Africa and Spain, as well as 11 from Ireland, but if there is an international flag to follow this afternoon it looks like being "le Tricolore."

France’s most successful overseas jockey, Olivier Peslier, teams up with his old friend Goldikova in a vintage renewal of the Queen Anne Stakes and also will be on board Makfi in the St James’s Palace Stakes.

Even in the illustrious career of 37-year-old Peslier, that would be a rare Group One double but the strength of French racing has been advertised throughout the first part of the 2010 flat season with a Guineas double at Newmarket as well as keeping all four of their own classics run so far at home.

Indeed there is a case to be made for local hopes having had their jobs made a lot easier by the fact that no French raiders visited either the Curragh or Epsom for the classics.

There is no such absence today and Goldikova is the undoubted star turn when she attempts to secure the ninth Group One success of her career in the Queen Anne. Ranged against her in what could be billed as a tri-nation challenge of European racing’s superpowers are England’s Paco Boy and Rip Van Winkle from Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle yard.

Rip Van Winkle proved himself a top miler last year with wins in the Sussex and the QEII and he got closer than anyone else to Sea The Stars in the Eclipse. On the face of it he represents a much more potent threat to Goldikova than Paco Boy but it is his first start of the season and O’Brien has voiced a doubt about whether he will be at peak fitness.

Against a mare of Goldikova’s class, nothing else but Rip’s A-plus game will be required to win and with Freddie Head declaring his dual-Breeders’ Cup heroine might even be better than ever, then it is hard to oppose the French superstar.

Makfi has had a career of influential people opposing him and yet he comes into the St James’s Palace Stakes as an unbeaten Guineas winner.

It’s a CV that if pinned to a Ballydoyle runner would result in an odds-on shot but the likelihood this afternoon is Makfi won’t even be favourite.

Such slights haven’t stopped the son of Dubawi in the past. He was famously sold by Sheikh Hamdan’s Shadwell organisation for 26,000 guineas before he even ran and yet travelled like a proper top miler in the Newmarket Guineas when a decisive winner over Dick Turpin and Canford Cliffs.

Both Hannon colts are back for another crack at him now, and Canford Cliffs has a Guineas of his own to his credit after a stylish victory at the Curragh that will provoke many into betting on a reversal of the Newmarket placings.

Canford Cliffs can look brilliant when races are run to suit him but his come-from-the-back style can be problematic up Ascot’s short straight and there was a straight-forwardness to Makfi at Newmarket that can again give him the edge.

Aidan O’Brien’s number one hope in the St James’s Palace, Steinbeck, has a lot of ground to make up on Canford Cliff from the Curragh but Ireland’s champion trainer can enjoy better fortune in the Coventry with Zoffany, who Johnny Murtagh has selected over the other unbeaten Balldoyle hope, Samuel Morse.

The ex-Dermot Weld trained Ghimaar warmed up for the Ascot Stakes with a hurdles win at Worcester earlier in the month and looks worth checking out.