Porta Fortuna simply loves Ascot — and that’s undoubtedly also true for her American ownership, who enjoyed success at the Royal meeting with the filly for the second straight year.

Last year’s Albany Stakes winner, owned by the Taylor Made Partnerships-affiliated Medallion Racing, Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, Steve Weston, and Barry Fowler, struck June 21 when Porta Fortuna captured the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at the prestigious British meet.

Royal Ascot coverage courtesy of Racing Post

The Caravaggio 3-year-old filly won for the first time since taking the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes last fall at Newmarket. Between the Cheveley Park and Friday’s race, she had been second in Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita Park in the finale of her 2-year-old season and runner-up in the One Thousand Guineas in her first run at age 3 last month at Newmarket.

Now, this Group 1 winner at 2 is also a Group 1 winner at 3, thanks to a fine ride from Tom Marquand.

With American owners, all roads lead back to the Breeders’ Cup, taking place this year at Del Mar, but she’s now turned up twice at her trainer Donnacha O’Brien’s “favorite meeting in the world,” and twice she’s won.

She did so in style, pulling a length clear of last year’s champion 2-year-old filly Opera Singer, with the heavily supported favorite Ramatuelle in third and her Newmarket conqueror Elmalka in fourth. That’s what’s referred to in this game as beating all the right sorts.

Porta Fortuna is now her trainer’s first and second winner at the royal meeting and he said: “It’s very special. Ascot’s my favorite meeting in the whole world, and it’s very special to have a winner here.”

O’Brien was full of praise for his whole team and the ride given by Marquand, who sat on the heels of Opera Singer. Marquand got the revs up early in the straight, and then waited, not lifting his whip until the final furlong to win going away.

“She’s so uncomplicated, and Tom gave her a lovely ride,” O’Brien added. “She relaxes, she quickens, she stays, she tries. She’s a joy of a filly to have. I was happy the whole way, everything went to plan. It’s not too often you can say that. I’m delighted. All along she hasn’t got the credit she deserves. She’s never missed a beat. She’s incredibly sound and incredibly tough.”

He added: “I think a mile is probably her maximum as she’s so classy, she has so much speed. On a turning track like this Tom could have a sit and use that speed. There are races like the Falmouth, but the owners are an American group, so I’d say the end-of-year plan is to turn up at the Breeders’ Cup.”

That American group — a number of whom were in attendance — got a truly British winner’s experience. King Charles III presented the Coronation Stakes trophies after the race.

Others from Taylor Made Partnerships watched the race in the United States on television, cheering as enthusiastically as if there in person.

The Porta Fortuna ownership bought the filly after she won on debut last year. She was bred by the O’Brien family’s Whisperview Trading operation, which includes Annemarie O’Brien and her husband, legendary Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien. According to Aidan, their daughter, Ana, had been the one behind her breeding.

She initially started for Annemarie O’Brien before the purchase of her American owners.— Stuart Riley/Racing Post

INISHERIN IMPRESSES IN COMMONWEALTH CUP

The Commonwealth Cup is a race under pressure.

In February, we found out it is at risk of being downgraded from a Group 1 next year due to the inadequate performances of the winners and placed horses. The quality has been missing.

Fans enjoy the royal meeting at Ascot Racecourse. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Those in favor of keeping the contest, introduced in 2015 as a means of bolstering the 3-year-old sprint division, may have been concerned about whether this year’s race could deliver the shot of class needed after first Vandeek and then Elite Status were absentees.

And yet a bright blaze scorched down the center of the wide-open straight at Ascot Friday to leave a feeling of hope that the race could retain its status, at least for a little while yet.

Inisherin was electric. For all there were question marks about the depth of the Commonwealth Cup, the winner could hardly have been a better individual to act as its potential savior.

It was not as if a win was unexpected. Owner-breeder Sheikh Mohammed Obaid had been as keen to talk about him as he was his St James’s Palace Stakes winner Rosallion at the start of the week, which is the sort of outlook you want if you have paid a 46,000 British pounds supplementary fee, and punters sent him off the 9-4 favorite.

But there are ways to win races and Inisherin oozed class throughout, traveling effortlessly under Tom Eaves before leaving his opponents for dust as soon as he was asked to do so. The distance back to runner-up Lake Forest was 2 1/4 lengths, but really it was a chasm.

“He’s very good,” said trainer Kevin Ryan, who collected his second winner of the week following Ain’t Nobody’s victory in the Windsor Castle Stakes and his 11th success at the meeting overall.

“He’s only going to get better, I’m sure of it. This is a good race, a race for 3-year-olds who need that time to mature and can’t be ready to take on the older sprinters right away.”

Last year’s winner Shaquille followed up his victory at Royal Ascot by winning the July Cup Stakes at Newmarket, and Inisherin is set to follow the same path as he bids to burnish his reputation.

The prospects of him doing so are likely to be aided by his attitude, with Ryan waxing lyrical about how Inisherin makes his life easy rather than a headache.

“He’s got such a good temperament - most of these good horses have an edge to them but he doesn’t. He’s a pleasure to train,” Ryan said. “He’s improved from Haydock and we can train him like a sprinter now, so he’s going to get quicker and better. So, the July Cup is next and if everything goes right, he’ll be back here for Champions Day.”

Inisherin will also get the opportunity to return to Royal Ascot next year, with Sheikh Mohammed Obaid asserting that the sprinter, as well as Rosallion, would be kept in training next year rather than retired to stud.

Ryan said: “So many of these horses get put away so early that it’s good to see them race, which is what the owner wants to do. It was a very easy watch and he has been a pleasure to train for—it takes the pressure off, although I still put some on myself.”—Peter Scargill/Racing Post

FAIRY GODMOTHER ANSWERS THE CALL LATE IN ALBANY SCORE

Ryan Moore needed some help from above as the Albany Stakes repeatedly transpired against him but Fairy Godmother answered his call with a potent late charge.

An 84th Royal Ascot success and fifth victory of the meeting looked unlikely for the jockey as he was denied racing room toward the center of the track when attempting to launch a challenge from the rear of the field.

The doors continued to close as Fairy Godmother’s stablemate Heavens Gate struck for home under Wayne Lordan, but the 13-8 favorite showed her superiority once switched to the near side of the track.

She flashed past Heavens Gate and Simmering in several bounds to deny the famous Sangster silks a second juvenile success of the week after Rashabar’s 80-1 Coventry Stakes strike June 18.

The ultimately cozy three-quarter-length success gave Coolmore and Ballydoyle their first 2-year-old winner of the week.

“I gave her an impossible task and she got me out of a hole,” Moore said. “I kind of wanted to be towards the stands’ side a little bit, the fancied horses were there, but we didn’t go mad.

“There was a wall of horses in front of me and around me and it’s incredible that she was able to win from that position. All credit to her, she’s a very good filly.”

Fairy Godmother became the third Albany winner in as many years to win the same Group 3 at Naas following the successes of Meditate and Porta Fortuna and Moore confirmed the filly had long been regarded as special, a reputation which saw her sent off at odds-on for a maiden in April.

“Down at the start she looked different class,” he said. “She suggested that before she ran and when she won the last time. Today, that was a big performance.”—Maddy Playle/Racing Post