Triple Time's Royal Ascot victory not such a rare feat after all - but 2023 could still be groundbreaking for older dams

It took just one race of Royal Ascot two weeks ago to send me down memory lane. It was not because the Queen Anne Stakes sparked recollections of previous runnings of the great race – it was the dam of shock 33-1 winner Triple Time.

Kevin Ryan’s colt is out of Reem Three, who is a mare I am old enough to remember winning at York for Luca Cumani twice in the summer of 2006. I can also recall Triple Time’s granddam Jumaireyah winning the race after Milan’s St Leger at Doncaster in 2001.

Reem Three was 16 years old when she gave birth to Triple Time in 2019 and instinct told me it must be a fairly rare feat for a Group 1 winner to come out of such an old dam. A dive into the Racing Post database shows that in fact Reem Three was a spring chicken compared to some producers of Group 1 winners.