Eldar Eldarov Takes Queen's Vase in Tight Finish

It took longer to call the results for the June 15 Queen's Vase (G2) at Royal Ascot than to run the race.

It is not very often you can say that about a race over one mile and six furlongs which lasted just over three minutes, but Eldar Eldarov  flashed home to force a photo with Zechariah  and judges Nick Bostock and Guy Lewis needed every piece of equipment available to them to sort it out. 

When they finally managed to separate them, "first number four" arrived over the loudspeakers and with that Eldar Eldarov remained unbeaten and David Egan had his second Royal Ascot winner, three years after Daahyeh  landed the Albany Stakes (G3). In doing so, he deprived Irish champion jockey Colin Keane of a first success at the meeting. 

There was just a nose in it but Egan was pretty sure he had won. 

"I thought I had got there," he said. You don't often hear such an emphatic answer from a winning jockey after a photo-finish, especially one as close as this. 

Egan added: "I have never hit the line so strong in a mile-and-six-furlong race. I ended up down at the start of the mile-and-a-half races. There are lots of exciting options for him. He could definitely be a St Leger horse, a mile and six on soft ground. It could be a nice target at the end of the year for him."

Roger Varian, who was celebrating a 10th Royal Ascot winner, agreed with his jockey and said the 3-year-old, named after a hard-hitting mixed martial arts fighter, could be on course for a crack at the final Classic of the season. He was cut to 6-1 (from 16) for the St Leger Stakes (G1) by Paddy Power.

The winning trainer said: "There's a lot to come from this horse and I think his best days are ahead of him. He put in one hell of a performance and you would think looking down the road that he could develop into a St Leger horse. Even looking to next year, hopefully, he can keep improving."

For Keane, it was a case of what might have been on the Freddie and Martyn Meade-trained Zechariah, who kicked for home passing the two-furlong pole and was still in front a yard from the line. 

"It's bittersweet to just get beaten. He's run an absolute stormer and to get beaten on the line is a sickener but that's racing," Keane said. "He's a horse I would have loved to have ridden before or even known a little bit. It could have been the difference between the winning and the losing of it. The distance was no problem to him and he'd probably go a bit further."

Describing his emotions, Martyn Meade said: "A nod! Can you believe it? A mile and six furlongs and you think 'Crikey, you can't get beaten by that little' but that's racing for you!

"We thought for a minute we'd won it, but we were on the stands and couldn't really tell. We were too far away. It must have been a difficult one to call. A dead-heat would have been preferable."

Unfortunately, there is no room for sentiment in this game, which can be so cruel to the losers, especially ones who have been beaten a nose.