TEEN BILLY'S RASH BREAK

lan Heitman reports on Royal Ascot young stars as 80-1 stunner springs surprise party on opening day

- lan Heitman

Royal Ascot is early in the season for two-year-olds with many of the runners at the Royal meeting only having had a couple of runs.

The Group 2 Coventry Stakes over 6f is the first Group race for two-year olds in the UK with 22 lining up this year - 16 winners, seven going into the race unbeaten, five maidens and a newcomer.

Rashabar, one of the five maidens, returned at 80/1, the second longest priced winner in recent years, and gave his trainer, Brian Meehan, a first Coventry Stakes winner and his jockey, 18 year old Billy Loughnane, a first Royal Ascot success. Loughnane went on to record a second win later in the week on Soprano in the Sandringham Handicap and said: "This week just keeps getting better and better. It doesn't get better than riding a winner here." Having won a Group 2, the Group 1 Prix Morny will no doubt be on the agenda for Rashabar, with the Group 2 Richmond Stakes also mentioned, a race Meehan won in 2017 for Rashabar's owners, Manton Thoroughbreds.

Aidan O'Brien was bidding for an 11th win in the race and his only runner was the 4/1 favourite Camille Pissarro, who was looking to get back to winning ways having been beaten on his previous start in the Group 3 Marble Hill Stakes.

Coward of the county, one of the seven unbeaten runners, had been off the track since his debut at the Curragh in April, he was a 5/1 chance to give his trainer Joseph O'Brien a first juvenile success at the meeting.

Charlie Appleby saddled two, AI Qudra, the mount of William Buick, who had been beaten by a couple of his rivals in his first two starts before a comfortable win on the all-weather at Lingfield, and Symbol Of Honour, the shorter of the pair in the betting, who had won on turf at Lingfield on his second start.

Richard Spencer, whose sole Royal Ascot win came in the 2017 Coventry Stakes, trained one of the maidens, Yah Mo Be There, who attracted some support into 17/2.