Yeats erased all doubts about who is the king of the stayers on Thursday as the redoubtable 8-year-old son of Sadler's Wells scored his fourth consecutive triumph in the $410,000 Ascot Gold Cup, the 2 1/2-mile marathon that has always served as the Royal Ascot centerpiece.

Three 1000 Guineas winners help to make the $410,000 Coronation Stakes the race of the week at Royal Ascot on Friday, when each of the 12 entries in the one-mile Group 1 for 3-year-old fillies has a proper claim on first prize.

Fillies of the juvenile sort will also line up for the Group 3 Albany Stakes in which the best of trainer Wesley Ward's 2-year-olds, Aegean, will attempt to follow up on the historic victories of Strike the Tiger and Jealous Again earlier in the week.

Wesley Ward electrified Royal Ascot on Wednesday as his juvenile filly Jealous Again led throughout in a scintillating display of speed to win the Group 2, $147,000 Queen Mary Stakes by five handy lengths. Her astounding performance in what some British observers had called the best Queen Mary in the last 10 years came just a day after Ward had made history by saddling the first American-trained horse to win a race at Ascot in Strike the Tiger.

Yeats goes in search of his fourth consecutive win in the $407,000 Ascot Gold Cup on Thursday, but the 8-year-old son of Sadler's Wells looks like a shaky favorite in the 2 1/2-mile Group 1 race, with his failure in the listed Vintage Crop Stakes on April 26 suggesting that he may be approaching the end of his rope.

The gap came just in time for Vision d'Etat in the $738,000 Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot on Wednesday as the Eric Libaud-trained French invader outsprinted Tartan Bearer and Never on Sunday to the line to land the spoils in the 1 1/4-mile Group 1 race.

Vision d'Etat can raise the French flag over the quintessential English race meeting at Royal Ascot on Wednesday in a competitive renewal of the Group 1, $735,000 Prince of Wales's Stakes.

Perfectly suited to 1 1/4 miles, last year's French Derby winner is coming off a deceptively easy half-length victory in the Group 1 Prix Ganay on April 26 at Longchamp. Olivier Peslier hops across the English Channel for the ride aboard the Eric Libaud-trained Vision d'Etat.

Strike the Tiger made history on Tuesday when he became the first American-trained horse to win a race at Royal Ascot. One of six horses Wesley Ward has brought to England for the Royal Meeting this week, the 2-year-old son of the Storm Cat stallion Tiger Ridge won the listed $81,000 Windsor Castle Stakes under John Velazquez, defeating 21 other 2-year-olds while landing a big price of 33-1.

Mastercraftsman held off the late challenge of Delegator to win the Group 1, $407,000 St. James's Palace Stakes on opening day of Royal Ascot on Tuesday. The victorious Irish 2000 Guineas winner established himself as Europe's leading 3-year-old miler with a neck victory, the third time in a row trainer Aidan O'Brien has won this race.

Royal Ascot, the five-day-long summer highlight of the British flat racing season, gets under way in spectacular style on Tuesday with the first three races all holding Group 1 status.

Seventeen group stakes, including seven Group 1's, will be run at Royal Ascot, which will race through Saturday.

Stacelita just keeps getting better and better. In a performance that recalled the daring exploits last year of Zarkava, she remained undefeated with an impressive four-length victory in the $1.1 million Prix de Diane (French Oaks) at Chantilly on Sunday, in the process giving her trainer, Jean-Claude Rouget, his 11th group race triumph of the year.