Precise (8-13 favourite) stormed to another Group One victory when winning the Coronation Stakes on day four of Royal Ascot 2026.
Aidan O'Brien's daughter of Starspangledbanner showed her class once again and grabbed victory in the Group One feature of the fourth day of the Royal meeting as finally Ryan Moore picked the right Ballydoyle filly. Precise, who won the Group Three Prestige Stakes at the Glorious Goodwood Festival and back-to-back Group One successes in the Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh in September and in the bet365 Fillies' Mile at Newmarket as a juvenile, was sent off favourite for the Betfred 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket last month and was the pick of Moore over stable-mate True Love. But she could only finish seventh behind the No Nay Never Filly, who was partnered by Wayne Lordan. However, with Moore on True Love, Precise turned that form around to land her own slice of Classic glory in the Tattersalls Irish 1,000 Guineas at the Curragh three weeks later.
This time, though, Moore was on board Precise, sent off the well-backed 8-13 favourite, and finished in style despite being slowly away. Moore pushed his partner into the contest on the outside before hitting the front inside the final two furlongs. True Love, under Lordan, tried to go with her, but Precise had moved onto the rail and kept giving more. She went on to triumph by a length and a half from the Owen Burrows-trained Touleen (12-1), who did well to split the O'Brien pair having had trouble in running under Saffie Osborne. True Love (5-2) was a neck back in third.
It was a fourth victory in the Coronation Stakes for Ballydoyle maestro O'Brien, who was landing his 101st Royal Ascot winner having brought up the century with Scandinavia's thrilling Gold Cup success on Thursday. The 56-year-old Irish trainer said: "It will be interesting to hear what Ryan said; she was a little bit slow away. I thought he did great on her, he kept out, kept her out of trouble. Delighted with her. Delighted for everybody. I thought Ryan was very good on her. It will be interesting. When she gets there, she looks a little bit. Delighted, delighted for the lads. And True Love was third as well, lovely run."
"She can do a lot of stuff, she can stay at a mile, she can step up; it will be interesting to see what Ryan says. I'm grateful and thankful to everybody for getting her here. She gets a little bit lazy, but when you do ask her, she really opens up – but that's her. I think Ryan will probably say he was probably there a little bit earlier than he wanted, because he had to move early because he was very wide and he didn't have any choice. I think she did great."
On True Love, he added: "True Love ran a storming race, and she got trapped wide and it probably didn't go well for her, but she ran a great race."
Moore secured his fifth winner of the week and is closing in on his own century of Royal Ascot winners – Precise being his 97th victory. He added: "She began a bit awkwardly, went forward, I was a bit further back but I rode her to get there in front, beautiful rhythm, wasn't really caring what position I was in, just kept her going forward, she's covered ground on the turn but I knew she was going to stay well. She's the best filly, there was no need to complicate it, and she's done what she had to do."
"I would say 10 furlongs is within her compass but she's good at a mile, plenty of good fillies in the yard so I suppose we'll get home, see what the others are doing and make a plan. It wasn't her fault she got beat first time up. She's a good filly, very good filly, high-class filly, beautifully trained."
On runner-up Touleen, jockey Osborne said: "On paper an amazing result to split the two Guineas winners, but frustrating in the manner that it happened. I switched out to follow Ryan turning in and I felt like I was going to have a beautiful trip through, and True Love loomed up on my outside and just pushed me back in, and it was frustrating considering the margin she was gaining at the line was ever-diminishing. A huge run, just frustrating in the manner that it happened."
Touleen carries the famous blue and white colours of the late owner Sheikh Hamdan al Maktoum's Shadwell Estate, and racing manager Angus Gold added: "We thought she was a very good filly, and I think she's shown that today. She made up plenty of ground when she did get a run – it just would have been nice to see, if she had got one, what would have happened.
"She was fantastic beforehand – I thought she was the calmest of the lot in the paddock. She's growing up mentally and now she's showing she really does belong in that class, which I hadn't seen before, personally. She got beaten in the Fred Darling, and I was a bit, ok, maybe we're not that good, then Newmarket didn't work out – probably the wrong side and Saffie said, those undulations, she didn't feel comfortable on it, so we hoped this track would suit her better and it definitely did. She's run a great race."
