Young sires Not This Time and Soldier's Call on the mark at Ascot on Thursday

There was an international element to the sires' roll of honour at Royal Ascot on Thursday when Not This Time and Soldier's Call claimed their maiden winners at the meeting.

Taylor Made Farm's Not This Time was off the mark when his €460,000 Arqana May Breeze-Up Sale graduate Shareholder claimed top honours in the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes. 

Unbeaten in two starts after a Beverley debut just 12 days before Royal Ascot – itself only a month after Blandford Bloodstock's purchase from Gaybrook Lodge Stud – Shareholder is out of the Invincible Spirit mare Cloudy Dancer, a close relation to Group 3 Jersey Stakes winner and Irish 2,000 Guineas second Gale Force Ten. 

Not This Time, a sharp American juvenile by Giant's Causeway, is so far responsible for six individual top-flight winners from 15 individual Group or Graded winners to date. His sole previous runner at the meeting was Lucci, who was fifth to Perfect Power in the 2021 Norfolk.

Shareholder returns to the winner's enclosure after landing the Norfolk StakesCredit: Edward Whitaker

Dullingham Park's Soldier's Call had his moment when Mickley struck a blow in the Britannia Stakes. The gelding was bred by Oghill House Stud and partner out of the Wertheimer-bred Giant's Causeway mare Parle Moi, a sister to stakes winner Saying, the dam of Group 3 Prix de Fontainebleau winner and Prix du Jockey Club third Dicton. They are out of Pas De Reponse, the winner of the 1996 Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes for the Wertheimers and Criquette Head.

Soldier's Call, a winner at the royal meeting himself when landing the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes in 2018, is the sire of seven black-type performers from his first two crops. They are headed by Group 3 Prix Eclipse scorer Dawn Charger as well as Group 3 Dick Poole Stakes second Dorothy Lawrence.

Lope De Vega doubled his tally of royal winners when Going The Distance lived up to his name in the King George V Stakes. The Ballylinch Stud stalwart's previous winner came in the form of Defrocked, later renamed Limitless, who struck in the 2016 Britannia. 

Going The Distance was bred by Ballylinch out of the American Grade 3 winner Colonia, a Champs Elysees mare out of a Muhtathir half-sister to Group 2 Prix du Muguet winner Don Bosco. The Marc Chan-owned gelding sold to Jamie McCalmont for €160,000 at Arqana's August Yearling Sale in 2022. 

Read more

'A heart the size of a house' - Kyprios maintains the Moyglare magic with Gold Cup triumph 

'It's very rewarding when this sort of thing happens' - Peckham's perseverance pays off with Royal Ascot winner