In the opening race of the June 17 card at the Royal Ascot meeting, Victorious landed the Queen Mary Stakes (G2) for Aidan O'Brien, providing the trainer with his third winner of the week and leaving him one short of 100 Royal Ascot winners.
Ridden by Ryan Moore, the filly was one of the slowest away and initially found herself toward the rear of the far-side group. However, once Moore switched her into daylight, she quickened impressively, making up significant ground to score without fuss, winning by two lengths over runner-up Senorita Bonita (IRE).
While Victorious, who is campaigned by the Coolmore-associated owners Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Westerberg, took firm control of the race in the stretch, second place came down to a nose as Irish-bred Senorita Bonita, owned by Victorious Racing and trained by Simon and Ed Crisford, edged Three Chimneys homebred Ruiva.
The third-place finish in the 5-furlong sprint for fillies did give the United States-based, Wesley Ward-trained Ruiva her first group- or graded-stakes placing. The Kentucky-bred daughter of Munnings had entered off a 7-length romp in a late-April maiden race on the dirt at Churchill Downs.
As for Wednesday's race that saw 27 juvenile fillies start, Victorious' triumph saw her maintain her unbeaten record after two previous wins at Naas this season, the second in the group 3 Irish EBF Fillies Sprint Stakes. She now adds a group 2 success to her CV.
True Love won this contest for Ballydoyle last year before going on to land this year's One Thousand Guineas (G1), and following Wednesday's win, Victorious was initially cut to 16-1 joint-favorite (from 33) for next year's classic by Paddy Power, before being further trimmed to 12-1.
"She's a gorgeous filly," Moore said. "We think the world of her and she has a lot of talent. She's always shown plenty and has lots of pace. That was quality. She's so straightforward and is the complete professional."
On whether she could emulate her stablemate True Love, Moore said: "Fingers crossed. It's a long way to go but everything she has done so far has been beautiful."
Victorious completed the 5 furlongs in :59.19 on good to firm turf. It emerged after the race that Victorious, an Irish-bred daughter of Wooton Bassett, is blind in her left eye.
Video
O'Brien said: "She's a filly with one eye, so she's always been lacking a bit of confidence. She has no sight in her left eye, but we knew she was very good. I'm delighted.
"Ryan gave her a beautiful ride. She's incredible and we always knew she was classy."
With O'Brien now one winner away from a century of Royal Ascot victories, the historic milestone can be expected to be reached very shortly.
Simon Crisford was delighted with Senorita Bonita's performance. He said: "We've got a lot to look forward to and I think for her next race we'll stick to five furlongs. There's the Molecomb at Goodwood and races like that to consider. We'll just see how we go and how she takes this race.
"She's run a super race and just bumped into a filly who was better than her on the day, but we'll take her on again over five furlongs when we can. She's improved from her debut and she's done super well."
Besides Ruiva, the other U.S.-based runners struggled in the Queen Mary. Finishing off the board were More Champagne for trainer Thomas Morley, Shining Moment for Ward, and Celtic Dispute, for Patrick Biancone. Celtic Dispute lost all chance when she reared at the start. Before the race on her way to the gate, she unseated rider Christophe Soumillon.
BloodHorse editors added to this story.
