CONNECTIONS of Integral are well aware their mare faces a tough ask as she takes on the colts in Saturday’s Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes at Newbury on what is her seasonal bow.

The five-year-old is the only one of her sex in the massive 18-runner field for the Group 1 and on the only other occasion in her 11-race career she has tackled the colts, she was a well-beaten seventh in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Champions Day.