An already excellent week for Ardad was lit up by the G2 Norfolk Stakes victory of Perfect Power for Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum and Richard Fahey at Royal Ascot on Thursday.

The trainer is also responsible for Ardad’s dual winner Vintage Clarets, who took third in the G2 Coventry Stakes on the opening day of the meeting. That same day Ardad was represented by his 12th individual winner when Najat won on debut at Thirsk in the colours of her sire’s former owner Abdullah Saeed Al Naboodah.

Ardad went into the Royal Ascot meeting with a strong hand of seven first-crop runners in stakes races throughout the week and he still has Eve Lodge to represent him in Friday’s G3 Albany Stakes.

Perfect Power not only emulated his sire in being bred by Tally-Ho Stud and bought at the Goffs UK Breeze-up Sale by Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock, but he also took a similar path into the Royal Meeting. His first win came at Hamilton on 9 June, just eight days before his success in the Norfolk. Ardad himself had an even shorter turnaround time of six days between winning on debut and going on to glory in the Windsor Castle Stakes of 2016.

“You couldn’t really get a horse with a better attitude,” said jockey Paul Hanagan of Perfect Power. “He takes it all in and has a great temperament. I think that’s what got him beat first time, because we were all expecting him to win. First day at school – I think he just had a bit of stage fright, but he’s come out of that race so well, and as we saw at Hamilton, that race brought him on again.”