Canford Cliffs won his fifth consecutive Group 1 race, and beat three-time Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Goldikova, in Tuesday’s Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, the opening race of the prestigious five-day meeting.
He burst onto the scene in Australia last fall, winning three Group 1 races in six weeks and finishing third in the Melbourne Cup. Then, he conquered Ireland last month, winning two group stakes with ease.
Golden Lilac, the winner of the French 1000 Guineas last month, extended her domination of that country’s 3-year-old filly division with a one-length victory in Sunday’s Group 1 Prix de Diane (French Oaks) at Chantilly on Sunday.
By Tuesday, the American Triple Crown will have wrapped up, and the cream of the 3-year-crop will be on their way to late-summer destinations and an eventual convergence with the older-horse set. But across the pond, all eyes will be trained on an English 3-year-old, the best-known sophomore in the world, Frankel, whose next stop in a so-far undefeated career comes Tuesday in the Group 1 St. James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Canford Cliffs has youth. He is just 4, and with only nine starts, has room still to improve. He has won four races in a row, all Group 1’s, dating back to the 2010 Irish 1000 Guineas, and with an impressive 2011 debut score in the Lockinge Stakes last month, Canford Cliffs solidified his standing as England’s top miler. But on Tuesday at Royal Ascot, in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes, Canford Cliffs, for the first time, runs headlong into the force of nature called Goldikova.
As appealing as Royal Ascot might be to racing lovers worldwide, the five-day race meeting has nowhere to go but down after Tuesday’s opening.
The reputation of Goldikova was cemented years ago, but her younger half-sister, Galikova, will be out to make a name for herself in the Group 1 Prix de Diane (French Oaks) on Sunday at Chantilly.
Frankel, the undefeated star colt of the British flat season, has a name that resonates fondly with American racing fans, and a record that draws admiration from racing fans worldwide.
Trainer Wesley Ward plans to have eight starters at the Royal Ascot meeting in England from Tuesday through June 18, and considers the 2-year-old filly Judy the Beauty to be his best chance for his first winner since 2009 at the prestigious meeting.
Reliable Man’s stakes debut produced the same result as his first two races – victory. The unbeaten Alain de Royer-Dupre colt captured the Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) on Sunday at Chantilly with a strong rally under Gerald Mosse.
