Ten Bob Tony shocks Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot at 50-1

Royal Ascot’s opening day was transformed in a single mile, as Ten Bob Tony came from the back of the field to win the Queen Anne Stakes at 50-1 and instantly change the mood of the meeting. In a race built on prestige and punishing pace, the Ed Walker-trained five-year-old produced the decisive late run to beat More Thunder by half a length, with Opera Ballo third and the short-priced favourite Notable Speech never landing a blow.

The result was startling not just because of the odds, but because of the profile of the horse who won it. Ten Bob Tony was having only his third start over a mile, and his first at the trip since May 2024, yet he travelled with complete ease under Kieran Shoemark before quickening through the final stages. That patient ride proved crucial once Opera Ballo went forward and set strong fractions, forcing the race into a shape that tested the front-runners and exposed the closers who could not quite sustain their challenge.

More Thunder emerged late as the main threat, but Ten Bob Tony had already found the answer. He finished strongly enough to become a first-time Group 1 winner, and the margin, combined with the price, underlined how completely the race had fallen apart for the market leaders. Notable Speech, expected to play the leading role, was never truly in position to do so, leaving the favourite’s supporters to watch a race that had been turned inside out by tempo and timing.

The historical weight of the result was immediate. The Queen Anne Stakes is Royal Ascot’s traditional opener, a Group 1 over a mile for horses aged four and older, worth £750,000 and part of the meeting’s fabric since it was established in 1840 as the Trial Stakes before being renamed in 1930. It has opened the first day of Royal Ascot since 2008, and Ten Bob Tony’s win made him the longest-priced winner of the race since Garrick in 1950.

There was also a major international payoff. The Queen Anne is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, so the victory gave Ten Bob Tony an automatic berth into the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland on October 30-31. For owner Simon Sadler, who also owns Blackpool Football Club, it was a breakthrough at the highest level, and for Walker and Shoemark it was the kind of Royal Ascot result that turns a good campaign into a defining one. The official time, 1:37.53, confirmed the speed of a race that produced one of the most dramatic shocks of Royal Ascot 2026.