Coronation Stakes (Group 1)
Ascot - 19th June 2026
The original plan for Friday’s content had been a review of the Commonwealth Cup. For what it’s worth, I thought Venetian Sun was superb and she finished her race in the manner of a horse who is dominant in her division. However, as good as Karl Burke’s filly was, it was hard not to be drawn to the performance of Precise when she won the Coronation Stakes. In a race where everything appeared to go wrong at the start, Precise found a way to win and that is the sign of a real champion performer.
Having jinked on her way out of the stalls and briefly unbalanced Ryan Moore, Precise was on the back foot and her opening furlong of 14.40s ranked 8th of the 9 runners after she took 6.4s to reach 30 mph at the start of the race. She recovered however and once back on terms, she began to make headway from the 6 furlong pole, recording the fastest times in the field for furlongs 4, 5 and 6 as she worked her way around the field on the turn to lead with a quarter of a mile to run. Those are the headline pieces of data from the race timings, but it was her battling attitude in the Ascot straight that really made her performance stand out under Ryan Moore. Despite the fact that several of the runners were coming at her as they approached the final furlong pole, Precise found the required energy to gallop on through the line to record a run-out speed of 33.4 mph. We will come to the runner-up in a moment, but it is important to recognise that Precise recorded a late speed figure of 35.7 mph, which was within 0.2 mph of both True Love and Touleen. Both her average stride length (23.14 ft) and her average stride frequency (2.35 strides per second) ranked in the middle of the 9 runner field, but Precise found a way to overcome the odds that appeared to be stacked against her after such an unfortunate start to the race. There were some signs from the data when she seemingly disappointed in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket back in May that she was capable of far better than a 7th placed finish behind True Love might have initially suggested. At 41.15 mph, her top speed figure was only surpassed by her stablemate at Newmarket and having been drawn low and forced to make her challenge on the far side of the Rowley Mile, she was set a difficult task on her first run of the season under those circumstances. She readily reversed the form with True Love in the Irish 1,000 Guineas at the Curragh and has confirmed that form at Ascot too, as well as finishing in front of the unlucky Touleen. Whilst this race may have lacked the excitement and anticipation of the clash between Bow Echo and Gstaad in the St James’s Palace Stakes earlier in the week, in its own way, this performance was equally impressive.
I can’t quite leave it there because we have to recognise how unlucky Touleen was in the home straight. Saffie Osborne appeared to be coming with a late winning run, but as Moon Target and then True Love drifted to their right and in front of her racing line, she was forced to switch and lost valuable time before finishing the strongest of any runner in the field. She ran the fastest final furlong in 12.57s, recorded a late speed of 35.9 mph, which was faster than both the winner and 3rd and recorded a run-out speed after the line of 34.72 mph, 4% faster than the winner. The Stewards subsequently held an enquiry and gave out a 3 day ban to Luke Morris for careless riding aboard Moon Target, but Touleen’s chance was gone. She had the highest stride frequency figure in the field in the final furlong and whilst her connections can console themselves that she has now delivered a Group 1 performance, they must still be wondering what might have been. Given the attitude shown by Precise in the final furlong, we can’t be sure that Touleen would have won with a clear run, but her data does at least show that she was finishing significantly faster than the winner. As one of the unluckiest losers of the week, Touleen needs to be one of the first names added to the notebook from this week at Ascot.