Albany Stakes (Group 3)

PORTA Fortuna (Donnacha O’Brien) ran out an impressive winner of Group 2 Albany Stakes to provide Frankie Dettori with his 80th Royal Ascot win, and his third of the week after Gregory in the Queen’s Vase and Courage Mon Ami in the Gold Cup.

Dettori held the leader up in midfield and made smooth headway to challenge the always-prominent Matrika (Aidan O’Brien/Ryan Moore) inside the final quarter mile.

The 5/1 shot found enough when asked to take the measure of the Coolmore filly, and held on to score by a length, with Soprano (George Boughey/William Buick) third, the same distance away, having had to race away from the principals from her high draw.

A winner of the Group 3 Irish EBF Fillies Sprint Stakes at Naas over six furlongs on her previous start, the daughter of Caravaggio put her experience to good use to make it three wins from three starts. This was a first winner as a trainer at the meeting for Donnacha O’Brien, joining his father and brother Joseph on the Royal Ascot roll of honour.

O’Brien said: “It means a lot to train a first Royal Ascot winner. Porta Fortuna is a very smart filly, and congratulations to all the owners – they spotted her potential early and bought into her. The plan was to come here, and it is great that it has come off.

“She travelled really well and quickened smartly, but she kept going to the line well. She is just a very smart filly. We’ll take her home and see how she comes out of it. She is quite a scopey filly – she is owned by a bunch of American owners so the Breeders’ Cup will be a target, whether she will stay that far or not we will see. We will see how she comes out of the race, then we will make a plan.”