Illinois began his season in the best possible fashion with a gritty success in the Ladbrokes Big-Value You Can Bet On Ormonde Stakes at Chester.
A Royal Ascot winner in the Queen’s Vase last year, he was also second in the Grand Prix de Paris and the St Leger.
He was giving weight away to some decent rivals due to a penalty picked up in France on his final outing but Ryan Moore was thankful to Sam James for coming off the rail on the pace setting Al Qareem.
That allowed Illinois (6-5 favourite) to sneak up his inside and lead into the straight, but once there he thought he had done enough and Absurde and Al Qareem began to come back at him.
However, Aidan O’Brien’s four-year-old was kept up to his work to beat the rallying Al Qareem by a length and a quarter to ensure the Ballydoyle handler had won all four major races on the opening two days of the meeting.