Perfectperformance Wins Royal Lodge

Expectations are high for Godolphin's 2-year-old Perfectperformance, half-brother to One Thousand Guineas (Eng-I) winner Russian Rhythm, and he acquitted himself well with a 1 1/2-length victory in the Hackney Empire Royal Lodge Stakes (Eng-II) at Ascot Saturday.

With Frankie Dettori aboard, the $1.1 million Kentucky-bred son of Rahy, held off another American bred, Mr. and Mrs. John Magnier and Michael Tabor's Scandinavia in the one-mile round event. Susan Roy's Wilko, a son of Awesome Again  , was another 1 1/4 lengths behind in third to complete a sweep of United States breds.

Perfectperformance, who has won thee of his four starts for trainer Saeed bin Suroor, raced close up on the outside and nudged past Wilko 1 1/2 furlongs from home before powering home best of all.

Bin Suroor said Perfectperformance would have his next opportunity in the Racing Post Trophy (Eng-I) at Doncaster Oct. 23.

"In the last two furlongs he had too much class and speed and finished the race well on top. He needed the mile and his next race will be the Racing Post Trophy," the conditioner told Racing Post. "It's very early to be talking about the Derby but he should stay a mile and a half and if Sheikh Mohammed wants I will be happy to take him to Epsom."

Scandinavia, a son of Fusaichi Pegasus  , was held toward the rear by Jamie Spencer, squeezed through along the inside to range into contention in the straight, but could not match the winner in the run for the wire after switching to the outside.

Wilko was impeded a couple of times when lacking running room in the final stages of the race – once by the winner and once by the runner-up – but stewards ruled both were accidental. Leading briefly, he fell back to fourth for jockey Eddie Ahern before coming on again to edge Elliots World for third.

Frith, Kandidate, Grand Marque and Berkhamsted, who was hampered in the incident between the winner and Wilko, rounded out the order. The final time was 1:41.89 on good to firm going.