Royal Ascot: Queen Anne Stakes (Group One), one mile, 15.30 CET

Royal Ascot begins today and one can confidently state that this is the world´s best flat meeting - better than the Breeders Cup, Longchamp´s Arc weekend or Dubai and Hong Kong. The very first race of the meeting, the Queen Anne Stakes, named after the monarch who built the track in 1711, looks like the best race of the week, with the three best milers in Europe and probably the whole world in the opposition.

Favourite is the wonderful 5yo mare Goldikova (Freddie Head/ Olivier Peslier), winner already of 8 Group Ones, including the Breeders Cup Mile twice, and unbeaten over this distance for the past 2 years, in which she has easily beaten the best that could be thrown at her. She is notoriously difficult at the start, but otherwise she has no flaws and if she is in her usual form (and Freddie thinks so) then she should win.

The opposition is headed by Paco Boy (Richard Hannon/ Richard Hughes) and Rip van Winkle (Aidan O´Brien/ Johnny Murtagh). With two easy wins this season, Paco Boy seems better than ever - but he needs to be as he finished behind both Goldikova and Rip van Winkle last season. He won this race last year, when the field was weaker, but seems clearly the best British hope. It was earlier felt that he was best over 7 furlongs, but his win here in 2009 and last time in the Lockinge Stakes show that he gets a mile in top company, but even so we would be suprised to see him win this.

Rip van Winkle is a different matter and on last season´s form he would go close. He was the best 3yo miler in Europe last year, winning the Sussex Stakes and the QE II Stakes (this CD) before flopping in the Breeders Cup Classic. The problem is that he has not run since that race in November. It should also not be forgotten that he gave Sea the Stars a race in the Eclipse - something no other horse was able to do last year. All this suggests that he can bustle up Goldikova, but the lack of a recent race is obviously a problem, especially a the O´Brien runners so far have all needed their first run of the season.

It will frankly be amazing is another horse wins the Queen Anne, but the Aga Khan´s Dalghar (Alain de Royer-Dupré/ Christophe Lemaire) is clearly the best of the rest. This half-brother to Dalakhani and Daylami is improving - but needs to improve further to trouble the top three here. However he could well run into the frame. The lack of pace in the race could be a problem, but whatever the pace and the tactics, Goldikova is the class act here and our selection.