The remarkable Hong Kong-based miler Able Friend and the multiple group I-winning French star Solow will face off in a battle for supremacy in the June 16th Queen Anne Stakes (Eng-I), the first race of the prestigious five-day Royal Ascot meet.
Both of the five-year-old horses bring six-race win streaks into the one-mile Queen Anne, with Able Friend having most recently won the Champions Mile (HK-I) at Sha Tin and Solow entering off a victory in the Prix d’Ispahan (Fr-I) at Longchamp. For their showdown in the Queen Anne, Solow has been assigned post position four in an eight-horse field, while Able Friend will start from post seven.
Also entered in the Queen Anne are the Richard Hannon-trained pair of Night of Thunder and Toormore, the 1-2 finishers in the Lockinge Stakes (Eng-I) at Newbury on May 16th. Night of Thunder stamped his reputation as a talented miler last year when he scored an upset victory over Kingman and Australia in the 2,000 Guineas (Eng-I) at Newmarket, while Toormore has demonstrated good form at a mile while placing in several major stakes races, including last year’s Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (Eng-I) at Ascot.
The complete entries for the Queen Anne, along with trainers and jockey assignments, are as follows:
Queen Anne Stakes (Eng-I)
PP, Horse, Jockey, Trainer
1. Esoterique, Pierre-Charles Boudot, Andre Fabre
2. Cougar Mountain, Ryan Moore, Aidan O’Brien
3. Glory Awaits, Silvestre De Sousa, Kevin Ryan
4. Solow, Maxime Guyon, Freddie Head
5. Night of Thunder, James Doyle, Richard Hannon
6. Toormore, Richard Hughes, Richard Hannon
7. Able Friend, Joao Moreira, J. Moore
8. Here Comes When, Jim Crowley, Andrew Balding
(Please note that the post position assignments listed above are different than the actual program numbers.)
