YOU would have to go a long way to find a more professional and consistent high-class racehorse than Ribchester these days, but his win in the Queen Anne Stakes on the opening day of Royal Ascot suffers slightly in comparison with a couple of others on the card. He beat Mutakayyef and Deauville readily rather than easily and beat the track record by “only” 0.49s.

Given the speed of the surface and other times on the card, that equates to a timefigure of 118, compared to the 119 he posted when finding only Minding too good in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes over course and distance last October.

Ribchester’s closing sectionals in the Queen Anne were bang on par, but the early part of the race featured two outsiders getting loose on the lead and it seems likely those who emerged to fight out the finish lost a bit of time at that stage.

There is a chance that Mutakayyef (115), who had missed a couple of possible engagements in recent months and traded at evens in the run, still needed this, while Deauville (115) ran a cracker in third to prove his effectiveness at a mile on a day that was largely forgettable for trainer Aidan O’Brien.

O’Brien failed to train a winner on day one, unlike Willie Mullins, whose Thomas Hobson stormed home from the rear to win the Ascot Stakes Handicap as favourite.

An uneven pace, including sectionals that were seemingly a bit too fast as well as a bit too slow at various stages, punished the overall time at this little-used distance: the winner’s timefigure comes out at 91, but he can run a lot faster than that and talk of the Melbourne Cup seems realistic.