Jonquil powers to Paradise Stakes win, emerges as Queen Anne contender

Jonquil’s Paradise Stakes win did more than add another line to his record. It moved him into the Queen Anne Stakes conversation as a horse who can carry speed, handle Ascot’s mile, and finish with enough authority to separate himself from useful opposition.

On good-to-firm ground at Ascot on May 1, the 4-year-old colt by Lope de Vega out of Jovial covered the mile in 1:39.79 under Colin Keane, then held off Holloway Boy by 1 1/4 lengths with Remmooz a neck farther back in third. The Listed race was run with 8 runners and carried the official tag of a Queen Anne Stakes trial, which gives the result immediate relevance for Royal Ascot. Jonquil earned £34,026 for the win in a race valued at $59,022, with total added money of $81,621.

What the performance proved was simple but important: Jonquil is not just a horse with a good turn of foot, he is a horse who can use it at Ascot over a mile. That matters because the Queen Anne is rarely won by a one-paced grinder. Horses in that division have to travel, settle, and still be able to change gears late. Jonquil’s ability to take care of business against Holloway Boy, a horse Ascot had singled out as one who rarely runs a bad race there, sharpened the form line even more.

The race also strengthened the case for Andrew Balding and Juddmonte to think bigger. Jonquil came into the spring with a profile that already suggested quality, including a Group 2 win in August and a record of four wins from 11 starts. His 2026 season had shown progress across multiple countries, but this was the first clean, current-season stakes win to match that promise. In a division where one strong Ascot prep can change the whole market, that matters.

Ascot’s own preview had pointed out that last year’s Paradise Stakes produced Docklands, the Queen Anne winner. Jonquil has not won the Queen Anne yet, but he has done enough to look like a legitimate contender for it. The next question is not whether he belongs in the conversation. It is whether he can turn this trial into the race that defines his season.