Royal Ascot’s diva

By Declan Rix

My first Royal Ascot experience has been and gone and unfortunately cold turkey has set in. I’ve gone from complete euphoria to a Monday night at Kilbeggan and truth be told I’m feeling a little melancholy. Some might think that’s an over reaction but to those I ask “have you ever been to Royal Ascot?” Five days of equine brilliance surrounded by an ambiance of pomp wrapped up in royalty. What else could one ask for? The Queen and her royal entourage and the appeal of Royal Ascot lured in many stars and celebrities alike. Cheryl Cole had been spotted amongst the 40,000 race goers on Tuesday but the northern beauty eluded me and instead I had to make do with another northerner, Joey Barton. No offence to Joey but he just isn’t my type. My heart sank as I knew I had missed a golden opportunity to meet the woman of my dreams but alas, another mare was on the horizon, Goldikova.

The eight time Group One winning mare was enough to rescue me from my depression for I knew how lucky I was to be encountering a girl with such talent. Great mares are very hard to come by especially when they’re that good. She’s a super star. Before the Queen Anne she was already an eight time Group One winner. She had won back to back Breeders’ Cup Miles emulating the great Miesque who ironically was ridden by Freddie Head. She had beaten multiple Group One winners, fillies and colts, on her way to amassing over two and a half million pounds in prize money. The real icing on the cake though is her Timeform rating. The Holy Grail. Last year she was rated top older filly/mare in the world ahead of the unbeaten Zenyatta and Rachael Alexander. Timeform chiefs gave her a mark of 132, a pound ahead of Zenyatta and four ahead of Rachel Alexander and she was clear of any other filly/mare in Europe. Her rating was eight pounds inferior to that of the mighty Sea The Stars but she was well clear of some top class colts, most notably Conduit (Breeders’ Cup Turf winner) and Twice Over. I knew all this before I went to Ascot that morning and I was genuinely excited about seeing her. My time had come as she stepped into the beautiful Royal Ascot paddock.

Freddie Head’s daughter of Annaba strutted around the paddock as she took the preliminaries in her stride; Mrs Cole was a distant memory by now. She cantered down to the start beautifully, in sync with her jockey as she floated across the Ascot turf down to the mile start. Everything had gone swimmingly I thought and I wasn’t the only one as Goldikova’s price was shortening by the minute. There was just one potential hazard to her chances, the stalls. Many top racing pundits had expressed their concern about the French mare’s recalcitrant behaviour when entering stalls. She had been noted in the past to play up and on her previous start, at Longchamp, she was particularly bad. However, Freddie Head was always confident about the situation and how right he was as the field of ten jumped away at 14:30 and 42 seconds for the Group One Queen Anne Stakes. Ballydoyle’s Rip Van Winkle made the running as he set quick early first sectionals. Goldikova sat in behind the pace-setter and travelled ominously well throughout the mile contest before Olivier Peslier sent her on after the two pole. She immediately took three lengths out of the top class field and only Richard Hannon’s Paco Boy could surmount some kind of challenge. Paco Boy came with a wet sail in the last furlong to get within a neck of the idling mare but he was never getting there under his very patient ride. Goldikova had done it again and in the process racked up her ninth win at the top level. Post race, connections were over the moon particularly her groom who greeted her with a big hug and a kiss. Within seconds she double barrelled her hind legs in a swift kick as if to say “get off me”. She was a real diva and the star of the show and boy did she know it. She swaggered back into the winner’s enclosure, for the twelfth time in her career, to rapturous applause. The whole of Ascot knew they were in the presence of a ‘real’ star and acted accordingly, as did I. It was a pleasure to see such equine brilliance in the flesh and what a way to kick off Royal Ascot 2010.

By Declan Rix