Qemah Bounces Back

The Jean Claude-Rouget-trained Qemah (5/2 favourite) registered consecutive victories at Royal Ascot with a game success in the G2 Duke Of Cambridge Stakes.

Qemah Picture: RacingandSports

Winner of the G1 Coronation Stakes at last year's Royal Meeting, the four-year-old daughter of Danehill Dancer travelled beautifully throughout the mile event and quickened up nicely under Gregory Benoist to register a three-quarter length success from 40/1 shot, Aljazzi, trained by Marco Botti, in second.

Andre Fabre's Usherette (11/4), was a further neck behind in third.

Second at Lingfield in a G3 last time, Qemah was too keen that day and Rouget, gaining his third victory at the Royal Meeting, was delighted with his charge's performance.

He said: "Congratulations must go to the filly, jockey and the staff at home including her lad Jerome, who does a wonderful job with her.

"We do strong work with her every day as she is a bit delicate, but I was happy to see her before the race today because she looked a different filly from Lingfield last time - there was a big change in her.

"I hope now that she will continue to improve for the rest of the season.

"She will now go to Deauville for the Prix Rothschild and then certainly the Matron [Stakes] after that."

Al Shaqab's Racing Manager Harry Herbert said: "She was much calmer today and much more settled. Gregory said she was the same filly this year as when she won the Coronation Stakes.

"She is a high-class filly and as a Group One winning filly running in here without a penalty, she should have been winning this. She needed her run at Lingfield last time to get the buzziness out of her, so it's very exciting.

"It was fantastic viewing. The conditions of the race suited her. She still had to do it on the day but she was very impressive."

French jockey Gregory Benoist has struck up a Royal Ascot-winning streak on Qemah.

Last year the pair landed the G1 Coronation Stakes, today they followed up with victory in the G2 Duke Of Cambridge Stakes, scoring by three-quarters of a length and a neck from Aljazzi (40/1) and Usherette (11/4) - the winner started as 5/2 favourite

Benoist said: "Qemah ran like she did last year. She was very quiet before the race whereas last time at Lingfield she was a bit excited first time out.

"Today with the good ground and pace in the race, she was ready. We are very happy to win two times in Royal Ascot with Qemah.

"The ground was different to the Coronation when it was a bit soft. Today was good ground and she has run many times in France on good ground. She loves that. She is a good filly and can go anywhere."


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