DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE

STAKES (group 2)

ITALIAN trainer Marco Botti has taken a while to get off the mark at Royal Ascot but it finally happened in style as Aljazzi, 40/1 second in the race last year, bolted home in the Duke Of Cambridge Stakes in the hands of William Buick.

It is in the nature of the sport that deep satisfaction is often followed by disappointment and O’Brien’s Hydrangea, strongly supported down to 15/8 favourite, could finish only ninth.

Billesdon Bess made much of the running but several fillies bunched up behind her with two furlongs to go. At that stage nothing was travelling better than James Fanshawe’s Tribute Act, who was supplemented for the race and weaved her way between rivals, looking the likeliest winner. She would have made it but Buick, biding his time, asked Aljazzi for a finishing burst and was rewarded in spades as the 9/2 chance picked up on the stands’ side, surged past the opposition and scored by nearly four lengths. Wilamina came home in good style in third.

“We’ve been so close with horses like Dandino and Excelebration and it’s just nice to finally get one on the board,” Botti said. “She winds herself up a bit before races and takes a little bit out of herself so we tend to space the races out. The plan was to have one run at Sandown and then come here and it worked. The Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket in a month should fit in well.”

The mare’s owner-breeders are Imad Al Sagar and Saleh Al Homaizi, who won the Derby with Authorized.

“Aljazzi has done well from four to five,” Al Sagar said. “At one stage we thought she might even be good enough to go for the 1,000 Guineas but after that race we realised she wasn’t ready.”