Racing: Sheikh has the Palace credit

ROYAL ASCOT: An owner receives the opening day credits while on the track a top filly produces an outstanding performance

When Sheikh Mohammed speaks so many people jump that the earth probably weighs considerably less for a moment. One of his trainers, David Loder, went so far that he was over the moon yesterday after complying with the owner's instruction to run the victorious Starborough in the St James's Palace Stakes. "I have to say that all the credit for this win is due to Sheikh Mohammed because I was very keen to run in France on Sunday over 10 furlongs but he insisted we come here," Loder said. "He was quite right. This is the meeting."

Starborough looked the business both before and during racing yesterday. The colt made himself notable in the preliminaries by baying wildly, apparently in conversation with the outsider, Running Stag. Equally outstanding was his burnished chestnut hide, which appeared to have been the work of`a French polisher.

Royal Ascot falls at a point of the season for throughbreds that ensures that the buttonholes are not alone in blooming for the occasion. The eight runners for yesterday's feature race were mobile artwork as well as athletes, the big-bottomed Desert King and Daylami especially kind on the eye. The latter, a milky grey, wore a white noseband, which was lost on him like plimsolls on a snowman.

It was heat, however, that characterised this year's St James's Palace Stakes from the outset. There were the winners of four of this year's European 2,000 Guineas on display but any notion that they would be allowed to prance around perished the moment Frankie Dettori shoved Starborough to the vanguard early on. "He has got a very high cruising speed and there were some horses out there with a greater turn of foot so I wanted to take the sting out of them," the Italian reported.

By the time the contestants returned towards the tumult of the stands, it became clear that only Air Express retained enough energy in his legs to give Starborough a race. Daylami and Desert King, the French and Irish Guineas winners respectively, were the most disappointing. Their eclipses continued the freak statistic that the trainers Alain de Royer-Dupre and Aidan O'Brien, leading figures in their domestic fields, had yet to saddle a Flat winner in Britain. (The Irishman did, however, clean up his discrepancy 35 minutes later).

It was left to Air Express, who had won the tombola prizes of the Italian and German Guineas, to mount a chase. Clive Brittain, his trainer, whose hopefulness is such that he would go hunting 'gator with rod and line, was once again rewarded for his audacity with pounds 40,000-plus in place money. He was not surprised. "If a horse has won two Classics, I don't care if they're in Timbuktu, it means he's a good horse," the Newmarket man said.

Starborough, though, revelling in the new tactics that have been employed with him this season, was even better. "Last year he was a little bit keen at home so we dropped him in for his races to give him a chance," Loder said. "This year we decided to just let him roll and, as you can see, when he gets going he's got a pretty ferocious roll."

The result resuscitated the value of the English Guineas, in which Starborough was fourth to Entrepreneur. (Michael Tabor, the latter's owner, reported yesterday that nothing had been found amiss medically with his Derby flop and the Irish equivalent could be the next stopping point).

"He's improved between seven and 10 pounds since he ran in the Guineas," Loder said. "We felt that over this stiff mile we could turn the gas on with him and it would take a good one to go past.

"And a bend helps him. If you're in front it's like when you're running a race yourself and you're at the front of the convoy. You steal a length at every turn and that's what counted in the end today."

All options are now open for Starborough, who even holds an engagement in the Irish Derby, though he is far more likely to run in the Eclipse. But then again Sheikh Mohammed may have in mind a claimer at Nad Al Sheba.

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