Indian Ink made the most of a 15 minute downpour that occurred shortly before post time to romp home by a widening six lengths in the Coronation Stakes (Eng-I) at Royal Ascot on Friday.
Most of the pre-race hype had surrounded the three filly Classic winners that were in the field. Finsceal Beo, winner of the Stan James One Thousand Guineas (Eng-I) and Boylesports Irish 1000 Guineas (Ire-I) was going to be facing her only conqueror this year, Darjina, who had beaten her by a head in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (Fr-I) in May. The German filly, Mi Emma, was undefeated and coming off of a nine-length romp in the German 1000 Guineas (Ger-II) in April.
Overlooked at 8-1, Indian Ink had already proven her affinity for soft going when winning the Sky Bet Cheveley Park Stakes (Eng-I) last September. Her most recent outing was a well beaten fifth to Finsceal Beo in the One Thousand Guineas at Newmarket. That was over turf rated good to firm.
Jockey Richard Hughes kept Indian Ink at the back of the pack during the early stages, as Cherry Hinton and Scarlet Runner led the field of 13 through the first six furlongs. Darjina and Mi Emma were running just off the pace, with Finsceal Beo laying in mid-pack.
Indian Ink began gobbling up ground on the outside, and ran up to challenge for the lead, along with Darjina and Mi Emma with just under two furlongs left. Kevin Manning went to work on Finsceal Beo, who moved up and got within a length of the leaders, but couldn’t find anything more. The classy filly eventually tired to finish eighth, on ground she clearly did not like.
In the meantime, the longtime leaders, Scarlet Runner and Cherry Hinton began to fade, and it looked like the French and German Classic winners were about to duel to the wire. Indian Ink had other plans, however, and displayed an electric turn of foot to draw away in the last furlong.
Mi Emma showed her class by hanging on for second by a head over Darjina. Arch Swing, who had plenty of traffic trouble throughout the race, got up for fourth, a length further back.
Time for the mile on the soft going was 1:42.26.
Indian Ink is a chestnut daughter of Indian Ridge, out of Maid of Killeen, by Darshaan. She was bred in Ireland by Killeen Castle Stud, and is owned by Raymond Tooth. Richard Hannon is her trainer.
Indian Ink swept past her rivals in the last 100 yards and romped to a six length victory in the Coronation Stakes, Friday at Royal Ascot.
