Royal Ascot: Poetic Flare keeps punching the clock, wins St. James's Palace in a romp

The three Group 1 races headlining opening day of the 2021 Royal Ascot meeting did not disappoint. Palace Pier started the day with a smooth win in the Queen Anne Stakes, after which Oxted delivered a brilliant finish in the King’s Stand, and Poetic Flare stormed home a 4 1/4-length winner of the St. James’s Palace.

Poetic Flare’s performance was particularly laudable considering the extremely active spring campaign he’s had for Jim Bolger, who bred and trains the colt and whose wife, Jackie, owns him. Poetic Flare won the Guineas Trial on April 11 at Leopardstown and captured the Group 1 2000 Guineas on May 1 at Newmarket. He ran back May 16 at Longchamp, turning in his only disappointing performance this season, a sixth in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains, a race run over ground softer than Poetic Flare prefers. He returned a mere six days later to finish second by a head to the Bolger-trained Mac Swiney in the Irish 2000 Guineas.

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Tuesday’s race was his fourth in six weeks, yet Poetic Flare never has looked better. Racing over the kind of faster going he prefers, Poetic Flare tracked the leaders in this one-turn mile, took command a quarter-mile from the finish, and drew steadily clear of the good colt Lucky Vega to win in a romp.

“He probably was better today than he has been all year,” said jockey Kevin Manning, who is married to the Bolgers’ daughter Una, assistant trainer to her father. “When I asked him to quicken, he kind of put them to bed.”

Poetic Flare is by Dawn Approach out of Maria Lee, by Rock of Gibraltar, the product of many Bolger-planned matings.

“We’ve bred from the family since the very early 1980s, so a long time,” said Jim Bolger. “When you have a horse winning the St James’s Palace like that you don’t really think about all the relatives and the breeding; you wouldn’t care if he came to you off the back of a truck, as long as you had him.”

Poetic Flare debuted in March 2020 but didn’t make his second start until last October. Manning said the colt was growing so much, Bolger had no choice but patience.

“This horse is so hardy he’s unbelievable,” Bolger said. “You have to give it to him to keep his back down.”

Lucky Vega had aim at the leader in upper stretch but could not come close to producing Poetic Flare’s final turn of foot. His trainer, Jessica Harrington, said Lucky Vega had been sold and was heading to Australia. Battleground won a show photo with Maximal as the winner clocked a quick 1:37.40 over a course officially rated good-to-firm.

Poetic Flare seems likely to stick to one-mile races with the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood or the Prix Jacques le Marois in France the likely targets.

Those, too, are races co-trainer John Gosden mentioned for Palace Pier after the odds-on favorite made easy work of the one-mile straight-course Queen Anne. Under Frankie Dettori, Palace Pier stayed in contact with the Queen Anne leaders, who went along at a tepid tempo, before pushing to the front with a decisive move about a furlong out and holding his advantage to the finish. The winning margin was a measured 1 1/2 lengths over Lope Y Fernandez, with Sir Busker third. Palace Pier, owned by Hamdan bin Mohammed al Maktoum, is by Kingman (who Gosden trained) and out of Beach Frolic, by Nayef.

“He has done it really smoothly,” said Gosden, who trains Palace Pier with his son Thady Gosden. “He has come through, won his race, and is exactly like his father: As soon as he gets there, he has done enough. And if I worked him at home with a very ordinary horse, he’d just stay with them. That’s his game.”

Palace Pier, who clocked a modest 1:39.18, might better suit a race with more pace that was run over ground with more give, but the 4-year-old, a winner in eight of his nine starts, is an elite miler now, capable of handling various course conditions and circumstances. The Queen Anne is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race offering automatic fees-paid entry into the BC Mile with travel expenses to Del Mar, but Gosden didn’t elaborate on year-end plans.

“Palace Pier’s options are the Sussex Stakes, the Jacques le Marois in Deauville, which he won last year,” Gosden said. “And obviously you can step him up a trip if you wanted to, for the Juddmonte International, something like that. He is a grand horse, great attitude, good looking, nice scope.”

Oxted won the Group 1 July Cup last summer over six furlongs, his established trip, but the lightly raced 5-year-old had no trouble cutting back to five furlongs for the first time, winning the straight-course King’s Stand by 1 1/2 lengths. The race was run at a breakneck pace, which helped Oxted, who made his move about a quarter-mile from home, slicing between horses to give jockey Cieren Fallon and trainer Roger Teal a first Royal Ascot winner.

Arecibo finished second, a neck in front of the American shipper, Extravagant Kid, who followed up on his Dubai win in the Group 1 Al Quoz with another strong overseas performance. Favored Battaash got too much of the strong pace in his first start since last summer and faded to fourth. The American shipper Maven never threatened and checked in 11th.

Oxted was timed in 59.03, a solid clocking over a course with an uphill finish that plays slower than its raw distance. He’s by Mayson out of Charlotte Rosina, by Choisir, and won for the fifth time in 13 starts.

In the Group 2 Coventry Stakes over six furlongs, the first 2-year-old race of the meet, it was Berkshire Shadow finishing much the best under Oisin Murphy to post a 1 3/4-length win. Wesley Ward’s runner Kaufymaker set the early pace but had no punch when challenged by a host of rivals and faded to finish eighth. Andrew Balding trains Berkshire Shadow, a son of Dark Angel and Angel Vision, by Oasis Dream, who has started his career with two wins.