Royal Ascot 2026: Victorious lived up to her name to win the Queen Mary Stakes. Aidan O'Brien's two-year-old filly landed the Group Two opener on the second day of Royal Ascot.
Victorious triumphs in Queen Mary Stakes
Victorious (10-3 favourite) flew to victory in the Queen Mary Stakes, the opener on the second day of Royal Ascot 2026, giving Aidan O'Brien his 99th winner at the meeting. Having won the first juvenile contest of this year's Royal meeting – the Coventry Stakes on Tuesday – with Great Barrier Reef, the Ballydoyle handler grabbed another with the unbeaten Wootton Bassett filly. Under Ryan Moore, Victorious lived up to her name to make it three wins from three starts.
Despite being slowly out of the stalls and having been behind early in the five-furlong sprint, she burst through late and fast to land a superb victory. Victorious beat the Simon and Ed Crisford-trained Senorita Bonita (8-1) – under Liverpool FC fan William Buick – by two lengths. Wesley Ward's American raider Ruiva (11-1) was just a short-head back in third with the Richard Hannon-trained Pershaada (33-1) another half-a-length adrift in fourth.
A potential Classic contender
Dropped back to the minimum distance, having scored back-to-back successes over six furlongs at Naas, Victorious maintained her unbeaten start to her career. Despite this sprinting success, she looks like she may be able to stay a mile in the future. She could be a potential candidate for Classic glory next season in the Betfred 1,000 Guineas, for which she was quoted at 14-1 by William Hill. O'Brien also won this same contest for the first time 12 months ago with subsequent 1,000 Guineas heroine True Love, who runs in the Coronation Stakes on Friday.
The Irish trainer, landing a third winner of the week and a 99th overall, said: "She's very classy. She's a very smart filly. She's only got (the sight in) one eye, so we were a little bit worried where she was drawn over there, but Ryan was brilliant on her, he reassured her and let her find her way through. He got a little group to follow and then took her to the outside, so I think he was brilliant on her."
He added: "We had her and the filly that's in the Albany and we tried to split them, and everyone thought this filly might be ok over five (furlongs), and obviously she's ideally six and even further. I'm delighted for everyone who puts so much into it. It's a big team. She's got a lot of quality and it's very hard to beat quality."
Ryan Moore, riding his 95th Royal Ascot winner, added: "Gorgeous filly, think the world of her, got a lot of talent. She's blind in her left eye, so she can't see anything on this side. She's just a sweetheart, she's always shown plenty and very natural filly, lot of pace, loads of quality. She's so straightforward, absolutely a peak professional."
