Sky Lantern scorches to Coronation glory

Sky Lantern in her class of her own as she waltzes to a four length victory in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot. Image courtesy of racingfotos.com.

Sky Lantern put up a truly brilliant performance to hammer her 16 rivals in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot this afternoon.

The victory maintained jockey Richard Hughes’ domination of the Fillies & Mares category in the QIPCO British Champions as he has now won all three races run so far – the QIPCO 1000 Guineas, also on Sky Lantern, and the Investec Oaks on Talent to add to this afternoon’s success.

Badly drawn alongside the filly she just beat in the QIPCO 1000 Guineas, Just The Judge, Hughes dropped Sky Lantern out at the back of the field, but when he made his ground over a furlong out, her run was unstoppable and she shot clear to record an easy four length success.

French filly Kenhope claimed second, just mastering Just The Judge, who has clearly not progressed as well as the winner despite her Irish Guineas victory at the end of May.

In fourth was Sky Lantern’s stablemate, Maureen.

The victorious trainer, Richard Hannon, said: "She had to be ridden like that to win.

"She made the other horses look slow, and they ain’t bad, I can assure you."

Regarding future plans, Richard Hannon jnr said: "We’ll take her home and see.

"There’s the Falmouth, which is a possibility, but Hughesie is adamant she will stay a mile and a half, and races like the Arc come into the equation.

"She stays in training next year."