THE ground was between “good” and “good to soft” still on the Friday of Royal Ascot, as reflected in the times. Golden Horde ran the slowest winning time in the Commonwealth Cup in its six-year history but it was 1.82s quicker than the Albany earlier on the card and is by no means a poor time within context.

Paced highly efficiently (99.7% finishing speed), Golden Horde was never far away and took over after halfway to see off Kimari and Ventura Rebel with authority.