MY much missed former Racing UK colleague Tom O’Ryan regularly used to inform me that Kevin Ryan pulls something out of the hat every year and the Irishman was at it again on Tuesday producing Triple Time to win the opening Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot defying an absence of 262 days in the process.

A homebred belonging to Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum and a half-brother to previous Royal Ascot winners Cape Byron and Ostilio, the four-year-old arrived with Listed and Group 3 wins on his CV with his only disappointing performance coming in bottomless ground at Longchamp last autumn.