Crystal Ocean gets his first Grade 1 win in Prince of Wales's Stakes

A driving rainstorm could not deter Crystal Ocean from recording his first win in a Group 1 race in Wednesday’s $944,475 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in England.

Ridden by Frankie Dettori, Crystal Ocean stalked pacesetter Hunting Horn for the first mile and held off a late threat from the favored Magical to win the richest race of the prestigious five-day meeting by 1 1/4 lengths.

The win has long-term ramifications for Crystal Ocean’s 2019 campaign. He receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita at 1 1/2 miles on Nov. 2, a distance that Crystal Ocean may prefer compared to Wednesday’s race at 1 1/4 miles.

Crystal Ocean (3-1) was always close to the front in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes. Dettori moved Crystal Ocean to the lead with a little more than a quarter-mile remaining and won even though the 5-year-old horse drifted around in the stretch.

“I know he stays well,” Dettori said in a television interview while aboard Crystal Ocean. “I moved him early. I didn’t hear anything coming.

“He was still full of run. I thought it would take a good horse to beat me now.”

Trained by Michael Stoute for Evelyn De Rothschild, Crystal Ocean has won 8 of 15 starts and seven stakes. The Prince of Wales’s Stakes was Crystal Ocean’s fourth appearance in a Group 1. He was second in his first three starts at that level, including a neck loss to Poet’s Word in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot last July.

Magical, second in the BC Turf at Churchill Downs last November, was beaten for the first time this year in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes as the 13-8 favorite. A 4-year-old filly trained by Aidan O’Brien, Magical won three stakes in Ireland from mid-April to late May, including the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup last month.

Waldgeist, fifth in the 2018 BC Turf and the winner of the Group 1 Prix Ganay in Paris in April, finished third in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes. The 4-year-old filly Sea of Class, second in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris last October, finished fifth, beaten 8 3/4 lengths, in her first start of the year.

Persistent rain fell through the early afternoon at Ascot, leaving the turf course soft.

Dettori had a strong day, beginning the six-race program with a win in the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes for 2-year-old fillies with 18-1 Raffle Prize, who rallied in the final furlong to win by a head over Kimari, part of Wesley Ward’s team of American-based runners.

Kimari, ridden by John Velazquez, took the lead with more than a furlong remaining in the five-furlong race and appeared to be the winner until the final strides. The Ward-trained Anna’s Fast finished 16th of 24 in the Queen Mary, beaten 7 1/2 lengths.

Kimari and Anna’s Fast won maiden special weight races at Keeneland in April.