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Ishvana is Jersey queen at Royal Ascot

BALLYDOYLE second string Ishvana powered down the centre of the track to land her first Group win and cause a 20-1 upset in the Group 3 Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot on Wednesday.

In giving the fillies a rare Jersey Stakes victory, Ishvana gave jockey Seamie Heffernan a first Royal Ascot win and left 4-1 favourite Aljamaaheer trailing in third with 5-1 shot Sentaril taking second.

Trainer Aidan O'Brien's wife Anne-marie bred and owns Ishvana, but their son Joseph took the ride on 11-2 chance Reply, also trained by his father, and finished down the field after an unclear passage.

Anne-marie said: "I'd like to thank my dad [Joe Crowley], who bought her dam Song Of The Sea at the sales for me. She was very impressive and showed a great turn of foot."

Heffernan added: "It takes her a while to loosen up, but once I got her to the outside she did and when I let her go on she stayed on well."

Sentaril, Ishvana and Lady Gorgeous were the only fillies in the 26-runner field and the eventual runner-up was one of two putting an unbeaten record on the line.

Her trainer Willie Haggas said: "They didn't go very fast early and they didn't fan out as much as we wanted, which meant she didn't have room to go when she needed to. She still ran very well and I'm very pleased."

Ishvana's victory shakes up the pecking order among the three-year-old fillies at Ballydoyle, which has already seen several changes in the first half of the season.

Homecoming Queen was second string when beating Maybe in the Qipco 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket, but Ishvana finished in front of her in the Irish equivalent when the pair were second and fourth and Maybe was fourth when 20-1 stablemate Was landed the Investec Oaks at Epsom.

The winner holds two Group 1 entries in Newmarket's Etihad Airways Falmouth Stakes on July 13 and Goodwood's Qipco Sussex Stakes on August 1.

The Clive Cox-trained Lethal Force finished fourth at 11-1 in the colours of Alan Craddock.

Heffernan was later handed a seven-day ban (4-10 July) and fined £550 for overuse of the whip on Ishvana, while Murtagh, rider of Sentaril, was given a two-day ban (4-5 July) for the same offence.