LADY AURELIA FLIES IN FOR STUNNING WIN
FRANKIE DETTORI described the performance as ‘utter madness’ but throw together any number of superlatives and you could not be accused of exaggeration after lightning-quick Lady Aurelia pulverised her rivals in yesterday’s Queen Mary Stakes.
Jaw-dropping, flabbergasting, outstanding, ridiculous. Take your pick. You can watch racing for a lifetime, be drowned in a sea of memorable finishes, but a few special efforts stand out.
If there is a better performance at this week’s royal meeting than the one produced by the Wesley Ward-trained 2-1 favourite, tests may have to be carried out to check an extra-terrestrial has not landed.
A seven-length unextended win could have been bigger had Dettori not spent the last 100 yards practising his victory salute.
The winning time of 1min 0.14sec was over two-and-a-half seconds quicker — the rough equivalent of 12 lengths — than that over the same five furlongs under similar conditions by mature sprinter Profitable in Tuesday’s king Stand Stakes.
No wonder one timing expert described the run as ‘off the scale’.
Ward has quickly established a reputation for bringing very fast two-year-olds to this meeting.
Lady Aurelia was his seventh win, all but one of which has been with a juvenile. He had warned that Lady Aurelia was explosive. He should have said nuclear-powered.
Dettori said: ‘To win at Royal Ascot is hard enough — to win by seven lengths on the bridle over five furlongs is utter madness.’
The summary of Lady Aurelia’s run is simple. Started fast, got quicker.
Dettori added: ‘I was going some very good splits. When I got to the furlong and a half I asked her to go and she found another gear. I was shocked.’
The Italian, who made it three winners for the meeting on John Gosden’s Persuasive in the Sandringham Stakes, was not the only one.
French-trained Al Johrah, carrying the colours of Sheik Joaan Al Thani, got closest to Lady Aurelia without laying a glove remotely in her vicinity. The Sheik’s racing manager, Harry Herbert, said: ‘I cannot believe what I have just seen.’
Herbert will get another chance.Ward is eyeing next month’s Molecomb Stakes and the prospect of seeing Lady Aurelia fly downhill for five furlongs at Glorious Goodwood. THE way the week is going for jockey Adam kirby, he should buy a lottery ticket. Tuesday saw the birth of son Charlie and victory on Profitable in the king’s Stand Stakes. Yesterday, My Dream Boat — like Profitable, trained by Clive Cox — gave him a second Group One win of the week at 16-1 in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes. Japanesetrained favourite, A Shin Hikari, was last of the six runners.