Royal Ascot: Docklands upsets the Queen Anne Stakes
Harry Eustace is now a Group 1-winning trainer after Docklands edged out favorite Rosallion in a thrilling finish to Tuesday's Queen Anne Stakes (G1).
“I wasn’t happy with the pace early on" trainer Eustace said "Docklands did his usual thing, just stepped slow, but he is just an absolute star."
Ascot specialist Docklands, who finished second in the meeting’s opener 12 months ago and won the Britannia Stakes in 2023, challenged on the far side of the 10 runners, with Rosallion coming through on the near side.
Despite jockey Mark Zahra dropping his whip entering the final furlong, Docklands found plenty to deny Rosallion by a nose and make amends for an unlucky defeat at Epsom Downs 10 days ago.
“I was so scared" Zahra said "about the whip rules, I thought it would just be easier to throw it away at the 200 meters."
Runner-up Rosallion, winner of the St James’s Palace Stakes (G1) on this card last year, took a nice step forward from his third in the Lockinge Stakes (G1). Cairo (100/1) outran his odds in third for Alice Haynes, just edging out Notable Speech.
The James McDonald trained Carl Spackler wound up sixth after pressing Docklands in the final furlong and weakening in the final 110 yards.
Richard Hannon said of Rosallion: “He is still a top-class miler. I thought he had it there. Well done to the winners. It was an extremely good race. He did everything for a win, you can’t ask for much more than that. He has done us proud and we are delighted.”
Alice Haynes, trainer of Cairo (3rd) said: “I would have quite liked to have ran him in the Wolferton later on today but we were quite persistent we should come back here. He ran a good race last year finishing eighth and we didn’t really think he’d go and run a race like that, fantastic."
Cairo’s jockey Silvestre de Sousa said: “It was a good run. He is a horse who has been placed in Group races, and he deserves to be in a place like that. It was a shame there was not much of a pace on, but he ran a blinder.”
Notable Speech’s trainer Charlie Appleby said: “It is disappointing when you have a race like that and they’ve gone the pace they have. That’s racing - I’ve seen it many times before and we will see it plenty of times going forward. From our point of view, it was a bit hard to watch. When you have to start manoeuvring left to right and they are sprinting, you know you are losing momentum and ground."