Racing: Mud helps Indian Ink make her mark

Three fillies disputing European supremacy came here yesterday - one from Ireland, one from France, and one from Germany - to settle matters on neutral ground. How ironic, then, that the ground itself should instead develop a sudden, unanswerable bias towards a British interloper.

A violent rainstorm before the Coronation Stakes may not have done a great deal for other feminine contributors to this pageant, who were left clutching soggy, crumpled hats, but it suited Indian Ink literally down to the ground. This filly must have soft going to show her best and, given that exactly the reverse applied to Finsceal Beo among others, her best proved more than good enough. Indeed, after challenging on the bridle halfway up the straight, she surged half a dozen lengths clear without discovering whether Richard Hughes had brought a whip with him.

Their pursuers were led by two of the three Classic winners who had dominated the build-up, Mi Emma just edging out Darjina for second, but Finsceal Beo faded into eighth despite joining issue on the bridle. Indian Ink had finished only fifth behind that filly in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket, but conditions were very quick that day.

The emphatic margin of this success underlined her authentic merit, granted the right conditions, her Cheveley Park Stakes form at Newmarket last year having been widely dismissed as substandard for a Group One. Not by everyone, mind. Her odds came down with every raindrop, from 25-1 in the morning to 8-1.

"We don't bet in these races!" protested her trainer, Richard Hannon. This was his 21st Royal Ascot winner, but his first at Group One level. "We'd been having a bad week until now. But good luck to those who looked at her form on soft ground and backed her. The ground made a big difference. It was all wrong for her in the Guineas. She looked as though she was travelling brilliantly today, but with Hughesie you never know. Sometimes he's hanging on to them, and it doesn't happen. It certainly happened this time."

It did not happen for Kevin Manning on Finsceal Beo, though at least she suggested that her busy spring has not caught up with her. "She was travelling unbelievably well," the jockey said. "But she couldn't quicken on the ground, she was losing her footing on it." Connections of both placed fillies also felt the ground had turned against them.

The belief that You'resothrilling could emulate Finsceal Beo at Newmarket next spring was not particularly weakened by her defeat by a 50-1 shot, Nijoom Dubai, in the Albany Stakes.

The winner got first run as the favourite was squeezed at a critical stage, keeping her just over a length at bay, but You'resothrilling finished nicely and, as a sister to Giant's Causeway, can be expected to flourish over a mile next year.

Of course, as the winner's trainer noted, the Guineas is still a long way off. "I don't even think about that at the moment," Mick Channon said. "So much can go wrong. She was probably our best early two-year-old and we were delighted with her first run, but then the wheels fell off next time at Folkestone. We all backed her that day but the race ended up a total mess." Totesport offer her at 25-1 for the Guineas, with You'resothrilling 16-1. For what it may be worth, the latter still looks a perfectly fair price.

Her trainer, Aidan O'Brien, saddled his fourth winner of the meeting when Mahler, disappointing in Derby, showed his true colours stepped up to two miles in the Queen's Vase. He confirmed himself a thorough stayer, looking better as the race went on, and was in command from the home turn. "I was very worried about the ground," O'Brien said. "He's such a good-moving horse. He learned a lot at Epsom. He's a very classy stayer, potentially a Cup horse next year."

In the meantime his agenda will be dominated by the Ladbrokes St Leger, for which the sponsors offer him at 7-1. Aqaleem, the Derby third, is 5-1 favourite, with Boscobel 8-1 after giving the slip to Lucarno, fourth at Epsom, in the King Edward VII Stakes. Boscobel showed the resolution typical of so many stayers trained by Mark Johnston, and was ridden from the front in characteristic fashion by Joe Fanning.

"This is only Joe's second winner and maybe that's my fault," Johnston said. "He was always the guy who went to Ayr or Redcar while Ascot was on. He's an all-round horseman. He settles them and knows when to go, and when not to go. He kicked at just the right time, and is a master at it."

Lucarno's trainer, John Gosden, agreed that Fanning had controlled the pace. "The Derby was a fast-run race, and this wasn't, that's the difference," he said. "But the winner is a nice horse anyway - I think we may have seen the St Leger winner there."