John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on Wednesday.
Three points of interest
Zelaina the big improver in Queen Mary
Karl Burke has won two of the last three renewals of the Queen Mary Stakes (14:30), with Dramatised in 2022 and Leovanni twelve months ago, and has an exciting contender for the Group 2 contest again with Zelaina who will be ridden by James Doyle in the Wathnan Racing colours, just like last year’s winner.
Like both her stable’s Queen Mary winners, Zelaina goes to Royal Ascot after winning her only previous start and, in fact, she won the same fillies’ maiden at Nottingham a fortnight ago which Leovanni had won the year before. It’s a race that the stable has targeted with some of its best two-year-old fillies, as Beautiful Diamond won the same contest on her debut in 2023 before finishing third in the Queen Mary. The 2022 runner-up Swingalong didn’t go to Royal Ascot, but she did win the Lowther Stakes later that summer.
A daughter of Mehmas who cost £650,000 at the breeze-ups, Zelaina was sent off at even money at Nottingham and justified that confidence in some style, forcing the pace after a fast break and quickening clear after travelling strongly to beat the Godolphin filly Secret Oath, another expensive purchase as a yearling, by two and three quarter lengths, earning the ‘Horse In Focus’ flag. The bare form of Zelaina’s win doesn’t make her the top rated in this huge field but she has been given the Timeform ‘large P’ symbol, indicating she’s expected to make significant improvement, and she’s likely to take some stopping from her middle draw.
Cinderella’s Dream’s chances flagged up in Duke of Cambridge
A couple of fillies are clear in the weight-adjusted ratings for the Duke of Cambridge Stakes (15:40), including Fallen Angel who takes a break from Group 1 company and is fitted with cheekpieces for the first time. A return to the form which won her last year’s Irish 1000 Guineas would give her every chance and she shaped as though she’d improve for the run when sixth in the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury on her reappearance last month.
But she faces a rival who is already up and running this season and looking better than ever in Cinderella’s Dream who was also just in front of Fallen Angel when they finished in mid-division in last year’s 1000 Guineas. Cinderella’s Dream went on to do very well in the States later in the year, notching a Grade 1 win in the Belmont Oaks and finishing second in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, and after reappearing in Dubai, she ran a career best to win the Dahlia Stakes at Newmarket last time in track-record time, quickening four and a half lengths clear of last year’s 1000 Guineas winner Elmalka. Another who takes her on again here, last year’s winner Running Lion, was last of the five.
Cinderella’s Dream earned the ‘Horse In Focus’ flag for that success, as well as the ‘Sectional Timing’ flag, while Charlie Appleby has the ‘Hot Trainer’ flag. Appleby is yet to win the Duke of Cambridge, but Cinderella’s Dream’s jockey William Buick has won it more times than anyone else, his third and latest success coming on Saffron Beach three years ago.
Los Angeles and Anmaat go head-to-head again in Prince of Wales’s
The Prince of Wales’s Stakes (16:20) sees the third meeting in nine months between Aidan O’Brien’s Los Angeles and Owen Burrows’ Anmaat. The pair first met over the same course and distance in the Champion Stakes last October when Anmaat was a 40/1 shot but returned to his best despite completely losing his place in the short Ascot straight before recovering to get up late and beat Calandagan half a length.
Los Angeles finished only ninth in the Champion Stakes but that was no race to judge him on as it came less than two weeks after he had finished third in the Arc and it remains the only time in his career that he hasn’t finished in the money. At the time, Los Angeles had looked better over a mile and a half – he had won the Irish Derby and Great Voltigeur earlier in 2024 – but a more recent meeting with Anmaat in the Tattersalls Gold Cup showed that Los Angeles is an equally tough customer to beat over a bit shorter.
Following a successful reappearance at the Curragh in the Mooresbridge Stakes, Los Angeles had to produce another gritty performance to fend off Anmaat back at the Curragh last month. Having travelled powerfully, Anmaat quickened to take the lead from Los Angeles in the final furlong but, showing a brilliant attitude, Los Angeles rallied to lead again in the final 50 yards for a half-length win. That was a career-best effort from Los Angeles whose Timeform master rating of 126 places him behind only stablemate Jan Brueghel among horses trained in Britain and Ireland (at the time of writing, prior to Tuesday’s card at Royal Ascot).
There shouldn’t be much between the same pair again, who head the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings, and while Los Angeles had race fitness on his side last time, he can come out on top again in a cracking renewal and take his career record to eight wins from 12 starts.
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