Queen Olly puts down Royal Ascot marker Queen Olly earned herself a place on trainer David Loughnane’s Royal Ascot team with a clear-cut debut victory in the Frank Whittle Partnership ebfstallions.com Maiden at York. The Shropshire handler has clutch of high-class juvenile fillies this term, as evidenced by the recent Chester and Ascot victories of Absolutelyflawless and Omniqueen. Carrying the same Amo Racing silks as the latter, €300,000 purchase Queen Olly was seemingly well fancied to strike gold on the Knavesmire as the 11-4 favourite and got the job done in fine style. After being given time to find her feet by Loughnane's fellow Galway man Rossa Ryan, the daughter of No Nay Never moved stylishly into contention before kicking three and a half lengths clear of Catch The Paddy. Asked if he was feeling the pressure given the winner’s hefty price tag, Loughnane said: “We’ve had more expensive juveniles run this year so not on that front, if I felt pressure it was because I felt she was the nicest we had. “I don’t really feel pressure. We make an assessment of them and they have to go and prove it’s right. Thankfully she has, they don’t always but she’s done it 10-fold. “She’s still a bit green but she had to muscle her way out of a tricky spot, she hit the front, pricked her ears and didn’t really do a lot but Rossa said to her ‘we’ve got to put this to bed’ and she took a fair bit of pulling up. “I said the first day I sat on her she was a Royal Ascot filly and she’s an Albany filly to me, all day long. She’s out of a Galileo mare so she could be better over seven furlongs going forward, but Royal Ascot was what we had in mind and I think she’s proved she’s good enough.”
