Royal Ascot: Love wins Prince of Wales’s Stakes for Aidan O’Brien’s 75th victory – BBC Sport

June 16, 2021 News Editor

Love wins at Royal Ascot — Love, the 11-10 favourite, beat Audarya by three quarters of a length

Venue: Ascot Racecourse Dates: Tuesday 15 to Saturday 20 June
Coverage: Commentary on feature race (16:20 BST) each day on BBC Radio 5 Live; commentary on most races on BBC Radio Berkshire

Love dug deep to win the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in her first race for 10 months.

Last year’s 1,000 Guineas and Oaks victor, ridden by Ryan Moore, held off Audarya to give trainer Aidan O’Brien a 75th career victory at the meeting.

“We knew she was going to come on a lot for the run. She’s very genuine and very brave,” said O’Brien.

Laura Pearson became only the fourth woman to ride a winner at Royal Ascot with victory on Lola Showgirl (12-1).

She follows Gay Kelleway, Hayley Turner and Hollie Doyle after Lola Showgirl beat her David Loughnane-trained stablemate Ffion in the Kensington Palace Stakes.

“I dreamt of it but never thought it would happen,” said Pearson, 20.

But jockey Silvestre de Sousa was left frustrated after he was unable to remove the hood from Stunning Beauty before the gates opened. He pulled up his mount after being left trailing.

Laura Pearson wins on Lola Showgirl at Ascot — Pearson won by three quarters of a length on Lola Showgirl

Earlier, jockey Frankie Dettori also clocked up his 75th Royal Ascot win – with victory on Indie Angel.

The 22-1 outsider took the Duke of Cambridge Stakes for Newmarket trainer pairing John and Thady Gosden.

Dettori will be hoping for more success with the Gosden team on Thursday as Stradivarius seeks a record-equalling fourth win in the Gold Cup.

Irish trainer Gavin Cromwell won with his first Royal Ascot runner as 8-1 chance Quick Suzy, under Gary Carroll, outsprinted American rival Twilight Beauty to win the Queen Mary Stakes.

The Godolphin team took the Queen’s Vase with gelding Kemari (15-2), ridden by William Buick for Charlie Appleby.

And just as high draws and horses running by the stands rail seemed to have an advantage, the far side held sway.

Italian Marco Ghiani, riding for Godolphin and Saeed bin Suroor – as his compatriot Dettori did successfully for many years, guided 18-1 shot Real World to victory in the Royal Hunt Cup from stall four.

And the 22-1 chance Chipotle, a £10,000 syndicate purchase drawn in stall one, landed the Windsor Castle Stakes for jockey Charlie Bishop and trainer Eve Johnson Houghton.