Blue Bolt strike sees Keane waste no time in celebrating Juddmonte position

made the perfect start as Juddmonte retained jockey when recorded a bloodless victory at on Thursday.

It was the first time the six-time Irish champion had donned the famous colours of the Abdullah family since his appointment was announced on Monday, as he took the reins aboard Andrew Balding’s Windsor scorer Blue Bolt, who was sent off the 6-4 second-favourite for the Darley EBF Fillies’ Novice Stakes.

The Irishman left little to chance with a positive ride and having asked his mount to quicken and put the race to bed passing the two-furlong pole, Blue Bolt soon put distance between his rivals.

Although seeing her advantage shortened by Roger Varian’ Majaz in the closing stages, Blue Bolt was still a length and a quarter clear at the winning post to help rubber stamp Keane’s position as first choice to one of the leading ownership operations in racing.

Keane said: “It’s the perfect start and she is a nice filly who was a good winner the last day and seems to have stepped forward again.

“She’s very uncomplicated, she just gallops on and is a nice filly. It felt very easy for her in the first half of the race and I was trying to take her back a little bit and she just got a bit lonely once she had quickened away from them. But I would say she is a filly with a nice future.

“I’m very privileged to be asked to wear these colours and they are iconic in racing. I have grown up looking at them and their farm is only up the road so I’m in a very privileged position.”

Although this was Keane’s first ride on a member of the Juddmonte string in an official capacity, he has twice tasted Classic honours in their silks when winning the Irish 2,000 Guineas with both Siskin in 2020 and John and Thady Gosden’s Field Of Gold only last month.

It is the latter that could prove Keane’s trump card at Royal Ascot next week and speaking to Sky Sports Racing he added: “He was very good on the day (in the Irish Guineas) and he felt like a proper horse. I don’t think I’ve ridden one as good as him to be honest.

“Only time will tell, but I think a fast pace would help him and bring him along further (in the St James’s Palace) and hopefully he’s then good enough to pick them off.”

Earlier on the card George Boughey’s 8-11 favourite Moonfall opened his account at the third attempt when a two-length winner of the first division of the Local IQ EBF Novice Stakes, while Charlie Appleby’s heavy odds-on favourite Time To Turn was turned over in the second division by Clive Cox’s 28-1 outsider A Bit Of Spirit.