THERE was a time when the Saturday of Royal Ascot was a poor relation of what went before, and was even referred to dismissively as “The Heath Meeting” and regarded as not being Royal Ascot at all. Much has changed!

This year, it featured the St James’s Palace Stakes – arguably the meeting highlight – as well as the Coronation Stakes for fillies, a third Group 1 in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes and two two-year-old Group 2s dealt with elsewhere.