ROYAL Ascot may have opened on Tuesday without the traditional finery and frippery, but in important respects it was business as usual, notably in terms of the high quality of the action on the track.

Star of the show was Battaash, who won the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes in devastating style and with the fifth-fastest time in the race’s history. That is a testament to his ability, but also to the fact that times indicated conditions were not as testing as officially reported, at least to begin with and on the straight course.