Precise powers to Coronation Stakes win at Royal Ascot

Precise did more than win the Coronation Stakes. She turned an interrupted spring and a flat run in the Newmarket 1000 Guineas into a defining Royal Ascot performance, beating Touleen by 1 1/2 lengths over a mile on good-to-firm ground and claiming the kind of Group 1 result that can change a filly’s entire season.

The 9-runner renewal on Friday, June 19, was billed as a direct rematch between the English 1000 Guineas winner True Love and the Irish 1000 Guineas winner Precise, and the result redrew the 3-year-old filly map. Sent off the 8/13 favorite and carrying 9-2, Precise stopped the clock in 1:39.58, with Touleen second and True Love a neck farther back in third. The race was the third meeting this summer between Precise and True Love, and with the score level at 1-1 beforehand, the Coronation Stakes became the tie-breaker everyone around the division had been waiting for.

Ryan Moore rode the race with patience. Precise was held up in midfield, made headway three furlongs out and was ridden to lead two furlongs out before edging right and keeping on. Moore said she was a bit slow away, but he kept her out of trouble and kept her moving forward. He also called her the best filly in the race, a line that now carries weight after she proved she could absorb pressure and still quicken when the race began in earnest.

That acceleration is what makes the result so significant for the rest of the year. Aidan O’Brien said Precise can stay at a mile and may even step up in trip, which opens the door to more than one path through the summer and autumn. For owners Derrick Smith, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Westerberg, the filly’s profile is suddenly far bigger than one rebound win. She has now landed four Group 1 races, and this one showed that the setback at Newmarket was a detour, not a dead end.

The victory also deepened O’Brien’s Royal Ascot record in real time. He had reached 100 Royal Ascot winners the previous day with Scandinavia in the Gold Cup, and Precise’s success carried him to 101. It was his fourth Coronation Stakes win, another marker for a trainer who keeps turning Ascot’s biggest stage into a Ballydoyle showcase. For now, Precise looks like the filly the others must measure themselves against.