Paddington (11-5) powered home to come out on top in the battle of the 2,000 Guineas heroes with a fine victory in the St James’s Palace Stakes on the opening day of Royal Ascot 2023.
Aidan O’Brien’s Irish 2,000 Guineas winner added a second Group One success, under Ryan Moore, to his Classic victory in his homeland, scoring in style by three-and-three-quarters-of-a-length from Newmarket hero Chaldean (13-8 favourite). After running out a fine winner of the Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh last month, beating stable-mate Cairo by a comfortable two lengths, the son of Siyouni took on English 2,000 Guineas scorer Chaldean, under Frankie Dettori, over the round course at Ascot. The Italian jockey, who is riding at his final Royal Ascot ahead of his impending retirement at the end of the year, tried to make all on the Andrew Balding-trained son of Frankel. But it was O'Brien's three-year-old who came home best to give the trainer a record-extending ninth victory in the Group One feature but a first since Circus Maximus four years ago. Paddington stalked the leader, sitting in fourth under Moore, for much of the way. But once they turned for home he made smooth progress to eventually take it up a couple of furlongs from home. He stretched clear and scored comfortably from Chaldean with Charyn (33-1) a neck back in third.
O'Brien was landing an 83rd Royal Ascot winner, one more than Sir Michael Stoute's record, having earlier joined him on 82 with River Tiber's Coventry Stakes success.
The Ballydoyle handler said: "He’s very exciting. The lads always said – John said to me – that this horse would get further than a mile if you wanted him to, no problem. Ryan gave him a lovely ride – I thought he was excellent on him. Adrian rides him, Andrew’s in charge of him, Seamus rides him in his work – a lot of people I am very grateful and thankful to. The unusual thing is he is able to quicken. He’s very easy to get a position – Ryan gave him a beautiful ride, because he was out there and he knew it was going to be tacky, and obviously when Frankie is in front it is always very dangerous, but Ryan gave him a masterful ride. He didn’t panic, and produced him and quickened. He is able to quicken very well and that is the big thing, and what makes good horses great. The lads will have to think about whether they want to go to Glorious Goodwood for the Sussex Stakes. We will tell them after 10 days how he is, and then they will decide between themselves what they want to do. But he has all the options, because he has the speed to be a top miler, like we see, so it’s very exciting.”
Discussing Paddington’s unusual route to the Classics, O’Brien added: “What we try in the spring is to get the horses out, and most of them are too high to be in a handicap, and we go the route we can start them at, and try and start as low as we can. The Free Handicap in Ireland is always a good race, like the Free Handicap here, if you can get into it. He won his maiden nice, but it mustn’t have been a brilliant maiden, and then he obviously got a nice mark. He didn’t win bolting on the bridle or anything, he won nicely without being over-impressive.”
Moore secured a 75th success at Royal Ascot, just two behind Dettori's 77. But it was only his third win in the St James's Palace Stakes. But on Paddington, he said: "He stepped well and then two of the boys kicked on and I lost my cover going into the bend. I didn't want Frankie going on, but maybe I should have been a bit cold and ridden him further back. He took me there quite easy, he put his foot down and found plenty. He's a very good colt who is improving and improving. I'm very happy with him. He has a lot of class, he travelled into it easily and quickened up past them. We wanted to keep it uncomplicated."
Moore later added a third victory of the afternoon to move within one of Dettori's haul when he partnered the Willie Mullins-trained Grade One-winning hurdler Vauban (evens favourite) won the Copper Horse Handicap. The five-year-old Rich Ricci-owned gelding has won at the Cheltenham, Punchestown and Dublin Racing Festivals in the past and proved to have too much class over 1m6f for his rivals. He hit the front early on and stretched well clear of the field to win by seven-and-a-half lengths ahead of stable-mate Absurde (5-1). Irish champion jumps trainer Mullins, who started the day in one of the royal carriages and ended it with a one-two in the finale, with the Frankie Dettori-ridden Absurde second
County Carlow handler Mullins said: "It was a great performance from the horse, he's improving all the time. What was especially good was how brave Ryan Moore was, that was plan B or C what he did there. He jumped out, saw there was no pace and thought he'd better be more forward than we'd planned to be. He took the bull by the horns going around the first bend and then just rolled along the whole race. He stacked them all up behind him and started letting out a bit of speed – seven, six, five furlongs out he just kept winding it up and held some in reserve to win by seven and a half lengths, which is amazing."
On future plans, the Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National-winning handler added: "We will have a look at all those races, York could be on the agenda and the Melbourne Cup is where we said we'd like to go and that's what we're going to try to do. We've had a wonderful day and to have a winner on top of that (being in the procession), you cannot ask for any more."
