First day of Royal Ascot: the Group One declarations

Three Guineas winners will clash on the opening day of Royal Ascot as Notable Speech, Rosallion and Metropolitan all stood their ground for Tuesday’s St James’s Palace Stakes.

Charlie Appleby’s Notable Speech enhanced his unbeaten record when getting the better of Rosallion in the opening Classic of the season at Newmarket, but Richard Hannon’s well-regarded colt achieved his own Classic glory when outbattling stablemate Haatem in the Irish equivalent.

Mario Baratti’s Metropolitan adds further spice having picked up the French version of the Guineas at ParisLongchamp, while the international challenge is bolstered by fellow French raider Darlinghurst who has won four in a row this term.

Henry Longfellow was down the field in the French capital and also takes his spot in a red-hot Group One event which features stablemate and Breeders’ Cup winner Unquestionable, Owen Burrows’ Alyanaabi and Ed Walker’s Heron Stakes hero Almaqam.

Roger Varian believes he has Charyn in the form of his life for Tuesday’s Queen Anne Stakes, the mile Group One which is the first of eight QIPCO British Champions Series races at another star-studded Royal Ascot.

The Queen Anne has attracted its usual high-class field and there is a strong French challenge headed by Big Rock, the six-length winner of last year’s Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on QIPCO British Champions Day, and Facteur Cheval who was second there and also in the Sussex Stakes.

In the circumstances Charyn might seem vulnerable, having been beaten in all his six Group Ones, but he has improved this year and was better than ever in last month’s Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes, so hopes are high in the Varian camp.

The grey could never quite get to grips with outsider Audience, but the winner enjoyed a ‘solo’ up the middle of the track and Charyn kept on strongly to finish a widening six and a half lengths clear of third-placed Witch Hunter and the rest. Hi Royal, Big Rock, Poker Face, Royal Scotsman and Flight Plan were all further back, not to mention the classy Inspiral, a one-time favourite for this race who runs instead on Wednesday. 

Varian could not be happier with Charyn. He said: “He is very complete now. He’s a big, strong horse and very uncomplicated. You could say that at Doncaster and Sandown he didn’t perform any better than he had done at his peak as a three-year-old, when he was bumping into Paddington fairly regularly, but I think his Lockinge run tells you he’s a better horse this year.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Audience, who is a good horse in his own right, but he raced on his own and Charyn destroyed the others, which included some jolly nice ones. For me that was a career best and marked him out as a genuine Group 1 horse. 

“I don’t think he could be any better. He’s thriving at the moment. His condition since the Lockinge has been good and his work in the last fortnight has been very on point. It will be slightly different ground by the look of it and there are some nice French horses he hasn’t seen before but I couldn’t be more pleased with him.”

Big Rock is a powerful front runner and his Queen Elizabeth II romp was last year’s single best performance over a mile. He has plenty of other high-class form too and he will have Christophe Soumillon’s assistance for the first time, but he would prefer softer ground and needs to step up considerably on his Lockinge form, when he was making his debut for a new stable. In the circumstances Facteur Cheval, who picked up a huge pot when landing the Dubai Turf in March, might be a bigger danger.

Marseille trainer Jerome Reynier said: “Facteur Cheval came back from Dubai in really good shape. He knows Ascot’s straight mile, having run so well there behind Big Rock in October, and although the ground conditions probably won’t be the same we saw him doing really well on good ground in Dubai, and that form is amazing. He’s ticking many boxes and can go to Royal Ascot with many hopes.”

Reynier, who hopes that Audience will provide the pace that Facteur Cheval needs, added that he is “an amazing athlete who has done everything”, and that “to win at Royal Ascot would just be unreal.” 

The Francis Graffard-trained Dolayli, owned and bred by the Aga Khan, is a third French challenger for a race France last took with Solow in 2015. He has a great strike rate and was only run out of it very late when fourth in Longchamp’s Prix d’Ispahan last time, when Brave Emperor was three places behind.

Docklands won the Britannia Handicap here 12 months ago and loves the track. He had Maljoom behind in third when runner-up in the Queen Anne Trial over course and distance in May, but Maljoom has superior past form and was possibly the unluckiest runner of the week when a close fourth in the St James’s Palace Stakes two years ago. He has raced only twice since, but Tom Marquand believes he has it in him still to be a force in this company.

Marquand said: “Maljoom is on a redemption mission really, but he’s a very good horse. It’s hard to know if he’s ever going to get back to that level of two years ago, but I think it’s more of a mental thing, as it’s hard to be off as long as he was.

“He looks fantastic and it’s a perfect scenario for him. Inspiral’s switch to the Prince Of Wales’s opens it out a touch and he’s one I’m really looking forward to. We know he’s had it in him, and it’s a race we get the odd shock in, as we’ve seen with winners like Accidental Agent and Triple Time.”

A field of 14 is completed by Alice Haynes’ new recruit Cairo, formerly with Aidan O’Brien and a Listed second at Leopardstown on his first start for the stable.

Last year’s runaway Windsor Castle Stakes winner Big Evs looks a worthy favourite in a highly competitive field of 17 for the newly renamed King Charles III Stakes, the five-furlong Group One which was traditionally run as the King’s Stand Stakes

Big Evs was a 20-1 chance and Mick Appleby’s first Royal Ascot winner when scorching home three lengths and upwards clear of 22 rivals 12 months ago, but his success came as no surprise to those closest to him. 

He went on to even greater things afterwards and he ended the season in brilliant fashion at Santa Anita, where he beat two more Royal Ascot two-year-old winners in winners in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, scoring by half a length from 150-1 Norfolk Stakes winner Valiant Force, with the Queen Mary winner Crimson Advocate back in sixth.

Appleby never doubted that Big Evs would train on, and the colt confirmed that he had done so in a Listed race at York on his return last month, where he looked as good as ever in beating solid yardsticks in good style. All has gone well since and hopes are high again for Big Evs, with whom Tom Marquand has struck up such a great relationship.

Appleby said: “He’s up against older horses and it’s a competitive race obviously, with Regional probably the one I fear most, but Big Evs hasn’t lost any speed and I didn’t doubt that he would train on. He could have waited for the Commonwealth Cup on Friday, but this five furlongs is his trip really.

“Last year we knew how quick he was before Royal Ascot, as he was working as well as our good older sprinters like Anaaf and Raasel. It was a great performance and it showed us he was as good as we thought he was. He then got the job done at Goodwood on ground he didn’t like and also won the Flying Childers. The Breeders’ Cup win was the icing on the cake.”

He added: “Very few British trainers come back from there with a winner, and it was a very good performance. It was brilliant for us as a smaller yard to do it, and we’ve been sent more two-year-olds as a result, including some from our first Arab owner Jaber Abdullah.

“Last month’s race at York was always the plan for his first run back and it worked out well, although it’s not really his track. He came back from there fine, and all roads since then have been leading here. Ascot obviously suits him and hopefully he’ll get the job done again. We just want the rain to stay away.”

Crimson Advocate won the Queen Mary Stakes for American trainer George Weaver, but she will be racing for John and Thady Gosden when she bids to follow in the footsteps of her brilliant former compatriot Lady Aurelia here.

She did not win the Queen Mary in anything like the style of Lady Aurelia, who won it by seven lengths and was nearly as impressive here a year later, but she confirmed herself in the form to do battle when a good winner of her prep race at Gulfstream Park last month and she looks a worthy contender for what looks a wide-open Group 1.

She shipped over only days ago and Wathnan’s US representative Case Clay said: “It’s exciting to bring Crimson Advocate back to Ascot, and she’s staying over because there are more important five-furlong races here than at home through the summer and fall. She won really at Gulfstream last month, and that was exactly what George wanted from her as a tune up for Ascot. I then saw her at Keeneland when she had her last breeze before travelling and she looked great.”

Wathnan also run the Tom Clover-trained Rogue Lightning, who was a big improver last year. He was only sixth to Kerdos in last month’s Temple Stakes at Haydock but is the choice of retained rider James Doyle, who said: “Like Vandeek in the Sandy Lane the same day, I think he was caught out by lack of match practice as he kind of fell out of the stalls and raced away from the action. 

“He never really got going but he’s really sparked up since then. He needs to, but it looks fairly open and I chose him as I felt it might be tough for Crimson Advocate as a three-year-old filly. I know Lady Aurelia did it, but she was a bit of a freak.”

It’s Europe’s superior five-furlong programme which has also attracted connections of Asfoora, the sole representative this year of Australia, which has had a great record here in the last 20 or so years. Trainer Henry Dwyer has described Asfoora as a “dyed in the wool five-furlong performer” and he brought her over two months ago to give her plenty of time to adjust to the change in seasons.

On paper she lacks the credentials of some previous Southern Hemisphere winners like Choisir (2003) and Nature Strip (2022), but she ran a pleasing prep for this when fourth in the Temple Stakes and Dwyer said: “In her right conditions, I think she can win a Group 1. I think at her peak, which she will be at Ascot and beyond, she is well and truly up to it. Ascot will be a challenge for her but she will run really well.”

Kerdos also had Palace House winner Seven Questions and Equality among those behind that day and represents a stable which excels with sprinters. His trainer Clive Cox won this in 2016 with Profitable and also saddles Dilligent Harry.

Regional rose through the ranks and gave Ed Bethell a breakthrough first winner at the top level in last year’s Betfair Sprint Cup at Haydock. He had been a possible runner in the Temple Stakes, but he was sent  instead to Ireland for the Greenlands Stakes, where he was beaten only three-quarters of a length by Mitbaahy under a penalty. He is likely to be all the better for the run and is a key contender here.

Believing was a close third behind Regional in that Sprint Cup, and his stylish recent Listed win at the same course put him right back in the picture for these Group 1 sprints. 

Seven Questions had beaten Vadream in the Palace House before running in the Temple Stakes, but Twilight Falls did well to finish a very close fourth there after a slow start and his record in this race (second in 2022 and fourth last year) suggests he might well reverse the placings.

The field is completed by veteran Emaraaty Ana, a Group 1 winner in his prime and a good winner in Doha in February, and fellow outsiders Kylian, Marakova and Purosangue.