Lord North continues his upward arc with impressive Prince of Wales's victory

Lord North wore the crown in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes on Wednesday at Royal Ascot, sending his rivals south for the summer with a homestretch burst of speed much too hot for any of them to handle.

Bursting between Japan and Barney Roy a furlong and a half from the finish after jockey James Doyle guided him off the inside for a final run, Lord North made his Group 1 debut look like a canter through Hyde Park posting a 3 3/4-length victory.

Lord North’s career direction has only pointed one way, up, since he was gelded late last spring following a poor showing at Sandown Park. Brought back in late summer by trainer John Gosden, he emerged as an ace handicap horse – winning the 30-runner Cambridgeshire at Newmarket. He closed out his 3-year-old season winning a listed stakes, won the Group 3 Brigadier Gerard on June 7, and took a considerable step forward in the Prince of Wales.

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Lord North, through the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Win and You’re In program, earned an automatic fees-paid entry and travel expenses to Keeneland for the Breeders’ Cup Turf, a race Gosden seemed to suggest might be considered for the 4-year-old.

“Since he's been gelded, he's been a very content, still very playful horse, he's not crazy like he used to be,” Gosden said. “We've always thought of him as a very classy horse, but it's taken a long time to get it out of him. That's more to do with the mind than anything else.”

Lord North settled at the rear as the race unfolded at a brisk tempo, Bangkok leading Adeybb with favored Japan caught wide around the turn following a poor break. Barney Roy pulled too hard during the middle stages and for a moment in upper stretch it looked like Adeybb might be the one. Adeybb hung around for a solid second but couldn’t come close to matching Lord North’s acceleration in this 1 1/4-mile contest.

Lord North is by Dubawi out of Najoum, by Giant’s Causeway, and won for the sixth time in nine starts. He’s a possible runner in England’s next major 1 1/4-mile Group 1, the Eclipse Stakes, though Gosden also has Enable for that spot and said Wednesday that Lord North would be assessed over the next 10 days before a plan was formulated.

In other Wednesday action, Tactical, owned by the Queen of England, stalked the pace and zipped to the front in the final furlong to win the listed Windsor Castle Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths, Doyle aboard this winner, too. Wesley Ward’s two entrants – his first runners this Royal Ascot meeting – never figured with Sheriff Bianco finishing eighth, Sunshine City ninth.