THERE was a time when the Saturday of Royal Ascot was a poor relation of what went before, and was even referred to dismissively as “The Heath Meeting” and regarded as not being Royal Ascot at all. Much has changed!
This year, it featured the St James’s Palace Stakes – arguably the meeting highlight – as well as the Coronation Stakes for fillies, a third Group 1 in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes and two two-year-old Group 2s dealt with elsewhere.
The St James’s Palace was a fascinating tactical battle as well as a high-class contest, in which Pinatubo managed narrowly to turn the tables on Wichita from the 2000 Guineas but both were run down by Palace Pier, the first three well clear.
The overall time was 0.17s slower than the Coronation Stakes but with some blindingly fast late sectionals, the winner’s final furlong (11.71s) even faster than Battaash’s had been on day one (12.14s)!
It actually reflects very well on the colts – and on the winner in particular – that they managed to run a decent overall time despite such a muddling pace before it.
I have a division-leading figure of 124 on Palace Pier after adjustment for sectionals, with Pinatubo on 122 and Wichita on 121.
Criticism of the ride on Pinatubo seems misplaced, given that the race turned into a real test of speed and that Pinatubo managed to lead narrowly a furlong out before being outpaced by one with an even better turn of foot at his disposal.
Pinatubo seems not quite the force of last year, but he is still very good.
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The Coronation Stakes had been run much more truly – a shade faster than ideal, in reality – with its winner Alpine Star almost 20 lengths quicker than Palace Pier to three furlongs out before drawing clear to beat some tiring rivals by clear margins.
That earns Alpine Star a 116 rating, and runner-up Sharing one of 106 (112 in US).
It has to be said that neither Quadrilateral in third nor Cloak Of Spirits in fifth did a whole lot for Love’s 1000 Guineas form.
The Diamond Jubilee Stakes was run at a strong gallop, and that and the stiff track seemed just to find out Sceptical (115) at the end, as he failed narrowly to hold Hello Youmzain (117) and the fast-finishing Dream Of Dreams (115). This was not an especially strong edition, however, it has to be said.
The Diamond Jubilee ended up only 0.07s (half a length) faster than the Wokingham Handicap won by Hello Jonesy carrying the same weight and 0.49s (three lengths) faster than the Silver Wokingham Handicap won by Chiefofchiefs carrying 1lb more, with all three quite a bit quicker than the Coventry Stakes on the same card.
Hey Jonesy was fortunate in one respect to hold Summerghand, who finished strongly to be beaten just a nose on the other side of the course, but he did it by running hard early on and is the one who gets a sectional upgrade, to 110 (the same figure as Summerghand, who carried lb more). Chiefofchiefs gets a solid-looking figure of 101.
Who Dares Wins won a slowly run Queen Alexandra Stakes by a neck from The Grand Visir (both 93 on sectionals), in which outsider Mukha Magic finished a bit close for comfort in third.