Zoffany rises to Phoenix challenge

It was, incredibly, O'Brien's 11th win from the last 13 runnings of the Group 1 contest.

William Hill now make Zoffany, who has won his late three races, the new 8-1 favourite for next year's 2000 Guineas.

Richard Hannon's Coventry Stakes winner Strong Suit was sent off the 4-9 favourite to defend his unbeaten record, with Zoffany a 3-1 shot having finished only sixth in the same Royal Ascot contest. All appeared to be going well for Strong Suit as he travelled strongly at the head of affairs for Richard Hughes for much of the contest, but he came under pressure from the one-furlong marker.

Zoffany was ridden with restraint by Johnny Murtagh and once the gap finally came inside the final furlong, he quickened up smartly to score by a cosy half a length. Glor Na Mara narrowly denied Strong Suit to get the runner-up spot.

O'Brien said: "He went to Ascot as a baby and it all happened a little bit too fast for him. We stepped him up in trip so things would happen a bit slower. We'll take it one step at a time but the National Stakes (Curragh, 11 September) looks a likely option."

Richard Hannon jnr said of vanquished favourite Strong Suit: "We'll bring him home and get him scoped but we're not making any excuses."

Across the Atlantic, Zenyatta stretched her 100 per cent record to 18 with a neck victory in the $300,000 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar.

The six-year-old was winning the Grade One contest for the third year running as he chalked up her 12th success at the highest level.

Her regular partner Mike Smith felt Zenyatta was toying with her rivals as she cheekily defeated the pace-setting Rinterval. "She literally was playing," he told www.thoroughbredtimes.com."I hit the front too soon, and when she gets to the front she wants to salute the fans. She started looking around. She does that sometimes in her works. She'll make the front and then start to shut down a little bit. That mare that hooked her today (Rinterval] was game."

Zenyatta has now equalled Bayakoa for the most Grade One wins by a mare. "This is such a great moment for Zenyatta," said winning trainer John Shirreffs. "She's in such rarefied air; I just can't describe it." Zenyatta has now earned $6,254,580 in prize money and is within one win of Peppers Pride's modern North American record of 19 consecutive victories.

Meanwhile, Tony Hamilton is most unlikely to ride again this season after breaking his pelvis in three places at Ayr on Saturday night. He was taken to Ayr Hospital after his mount Flying Statesman reared over backwards and landed on him before the start of a seven-furlong claimer. "It will be a long job and he won't ride again this season," said his agent Richard Hale. "He is having a CT scan today ."