Head’s Gold-en lady is a champ
The opening action of the 2010 meeting served up one of the tastiest dishes of the week, with the mile event living up to the billing as Paco Boy charged late to run the 11-8 favourite to a neck.
Freddie Head’s five-year-old smashed the track record last time out at Longchamp and was popular at the head of the market on the back of that run.
Despite usually proving troublesome at the stalls, Goldikova slid into her berth without turning a hair this time and raced prominently under Olivier Peslier.
As in the Jacques le Marois last August, Peslier allowed her to stride on at and early stage and she readily went clear from Rip Van Winkle to open up a commanding lead heading inside the final two furlongs.
Only hold-up performer Paco Boy had the ability to stage any kind of challenge and he eventually got racing room over a furlong out before finding the line coming all too late.
The pair of crack milers pulled over three lengths clear of 50-1 chance Dream Eater in third.
Goldikova was the first French winner of the race since Andre Fabre’s Valixir scored four years ago, and the triumph delighted Head.
The former jockey said of his dual Breeders’ Cup winner: “This is great for me. It is one of the greatest moments of my life to win at Royal Ascot with an exceptional mare like that.
“She was winning her ninth Group One race, she was favourite and has carried the race.
“She kept on finding something and wasn’t even blowing five minutes after leaving the stalls, so she must have a very special heart.
“I was very scared when Paco Boy came as I didn’t know what we had in hand and I didn’t know if she would respond and keep going.
“She can do anything in a race and you can ride her a lot of different ways – which is unusual in a racehorse of that calibre.
“She went early today and in the Marios, but you saw in America that she can come late.”
Head partnered 10-times Group One-winning mare Miesque to two Breeders’ Cup Mile wins but was loathe to rate Goldikova as her superior.
He said: “I cannot say she is better than Miesque as she was a brilliant two-year-old and won the French Guineas which was very special.
“But Goldikova doesn’t have to come as late as Miesque in her races and she wouldn’t have won a Queen Anne like that.
“That race today and the Marios last year are her two best performances for me and coming here she was in the best condition I have ever had her.”
Another try at the Prix Rothschild will come next, and Head added: “Her main target now will be winning the Breeders’ Cup for the third time and we will try and win the Marios again – that will be a hell of a race.”
The win was Peslier’s 14th at the meeting and his first in the Queen Anne.
The rider said: “She was very relaxed. Maybe I came a bit early, but she is a strong filly and I knew Paco Boy would wait a long time.
“When I took a look behind me, I saw no horses near and at the furlong pole I just had to keep going.
“She is lovely and the filly went straight into the stalls, no problem. This is fantastic, this is a dream.”
Paco Boy narrowly failed to record back-to-back wins in the race with jockey Richard Hughes having to wait for racing room.
Trainer Richard Hannon said: “He didn’t really get the luck in running – Richard wanted to go up the inner but the pacemaker wasn’t coming back.
“But he was three and a half lengths in front of the rest and you just have to say that they are two very good horses.
“He’ll be back. I left him in the July Cup, and we also have the option of going to France.”
Richard Hannon jnr, son and assistant, added: “That was probably the best performance of his career.
“He lost absolutely nothing in defeat, he’s got that one kick and you’ve got to ride him like that.”
