What is it about the Queen Anne and shock winners? Three years ago, there was Triple Time at 33/1. Last year, there was Docklands at 14/1. The 2026 scorer, Ten Bob Tony, went another step further by popping up at 50/1 for Ed Walker and Kieran Shoemark.

Four starts ago, he finished fourth behind Big Gossey in the Gladness at the Curragh. On the biggest stage in world flat racing, the five-year-old gelding is now causing a Group 1 upset. It’s a strange game at times. Full credit to connections for rolling the dice after winning at Epsom only 10 days earlier.

Again, it’s a case of Royal Ascot heartache for Charlie Appleby. He saddles the first two in the market, and neither managed to make the first two. Heading into the meeting, Rebel’s Romance in last year’s Hardwicke Stakes was his sole winner at this fixture since 2022. The boys in blue draw a blank on day one. More character-building times, but they will be back.

Wayne Lordan has benefited from Ryan Moore being on the wrong Ballydoyle filly twice in classics this season. In the Coventry Stakes, it’s Lordan again who capitalises, with Great Barrier Reef bouncing back from what Aidan O’Brien described as some “confusing” work at home.

Returning at 6/1 (from a morning price of 4/1), the No Nay Never colt is another example of how dismal bookmakers have gone when it comes to laying proper ante-post prices. Great Barrier Reef was priced up as 2/1 favourite with some firms for the Coventry after his debut win at the Curragh. He won a Group 3 next time, coming here unbeaten, and ended up being sent off triple the odds he was after his debut.

Yes, there was a rider booking that impacted that price, but it was always likely he wouldn’t be the sole option for Ryan Moore in the race. Layers really take very few chances with ante-post markets nowadays.

This result also highlighted how spot on the master of Ballydoyle can be at his early-season press mornings in terms of flagging forward juveniles. This horse rolled off the tongue as one of his names to note back in March.

Who said the Irish can’t produce a top sprinter? You had to go back to Sole Power in 2013 and 2014 to find the last Irish-trained winner of the King Charles III Stakes before Mission Central captured the old King’s Stand.

Bjorn Baker, the charismatic trainer of Aussie favourite Overpass (a gallant third) was quickly over to Aidan O’Brien in the immediate aftermath to quip: “You cost me a business class flight - I’ve got to go home with the horse now!”

Unusually for Coolmore, the winner was gelded after his debut run at two, so there are no stallion implications for the No Nay Never three-year-old, but he did deliver a boost for a family involving one of the powerhouses of National Hunt racing. Mission Central is a real feather in the cap for his breeders at Gigginstown House Stud.

That said, when Michael O’Leary sat down for The Big Interview in these pages back in November, he assured me he had zero interest in flat racing.

“If they ran the Breeders’ Cup in my front field, I wouldn’t go out to look at it,” he said. “I went to Royal Ascot once, and never again. I was bored out of my mind.”

Even if he wasn’t watching, O’Leary has a proper flagbearer for his pedigree, in top hands for the coming seasons.

The draw for the St James’s Palace Stakes meant the race was always going to be a fascinating tactical watch. Stall two for Bow Echo left the chance for some bunching on his outer, but the stewards took exception to the early skirmishes from his inner, where Gstaad had drawn stall one.

Ryan Moore was suspended for three days for careless riding, judged to have allowed his mount to edge left-handed without correction, causing Bow Echo and Talk Of New York to become short of room.

Christophe Soumillon coming off the rail at the top of the home straight - meaning there was clear shooting for Gstaad to take the shortest route around on the inner - was clearly the bigger tactical element of the race to note, though. It gave the runner-up every chance, even if he might have got a little further back than ideal early.

It wasn’t addressed immediately by the stewards post-race, but they did interview O’Brien by phone and decided to suspend Soumillon for eight days “for riding his mount in such a way that intended to give an advantage to another horse from the same stable”.

While credit must go to Bow Echo for doing enough to remain unbeaten in the circumstances, the gap is getting smaller between the pair.

It was a dominant two and three-quarter lengths at Newmarket. Here, it was down to a short head. Odds as short as 6/4 about the winner and as big as 4/1 about Gstaad for their possible Sussex Stakes rematch look out of kilter with the rate of progression from the runner-up.

If you ever wanted any example that there are very few soft touches to be found in Ireland, look at the result of the mile-and-six-furlong conditions race run at Killarney last month. Three of the first four home filled the 1-2-3 in the Ascot Stakes, headed by the gutsy Kizlyar for Joseph O’Brien (himself responsible for the 1-2-6-7).

This was a success to treasure for those involved, on different fronts. Joey Sheridan has been having a breakout year and took full advantage of the opportunities afforded to him when Dylan Browne McMonagle was injured earlier in the season. When the stable jockey picked wrongly here, the Group 1-winning Tipperary native was perfectly placed to deliver the goods for O’Brien.

Plenty of those who have supported him on his journey were on hand to celebrate with him, including Denis Hogan and his racing sponsor, Pat Healy of Healy Racing. Here’s hoping this is the first of many more to come for a talented young rider.

The level of emotion in the winner’s enclosure was tangible, however, for the HOS Syndicate. Of course, they have enjoyed some monstrous days around the world in recent years, but there was every sense that this one - a 25/1 handicap victory - meant every bit as much as the others, following the passing of Andrew Heffernan in February.

His wife, Margaret, who has been such a powerful driving force behind this syndicate for their grandchildren, spoke with complete class and grace in the aftermath. Hopefully, this day was a chance to celebrate the flame that is still burning for the Heffernan family in racing, following a such a keenly-felt loss.

As O’Brien summed it up: “I’m so delighted for Margaret and her family. I feel like Kizlyar had an extra little push in the last 100 yards.”

The card ended with a winner for another Irish rider, Rossa Ryan, when Daiquiri Bay conquered the Copper Horse Stakes for trainer Alan King.

It was a fair effort from the Galwayman from a double-digit draw. He is usually pretty composed post race, but gave this winner a real celebration past the post. This victory, his sixth at the Royal Meeting, meant plenty to him.

“I’ve got more enjoyment out of this lad today winning than I have out of all the rest of them,” said Ryan. “There’s been one man [Alan], who has been right in my corner all the time. We had a plan with this lad and it was a plan well executed.”

What was also notable about the 6/1 success is that it was achieved in a course-record time for a mile and six furlongs: 2 minutes 59.32 seconds.

At the end of a warm and dry day one, conditions were definitely quickening up.