Diamond Jubilee: Twlight Son edges tight finish

The market was barely able to split the winner Twilight Son (7/2 SP), Magical Memory (3/1) and The Tin Man (10/3) before the off, but in a tight finish it was Hong Kong raider Gold-Fun who got closest to Twilight Son, losing out in the end by just a neck. French raider Signs of Blessing outran his odds to finish a short-head third at 25/1.

Magical Memory - who has been beaten by Twilight Son in the Spring Cup at Haydock last season as well as in the Charity Sprint at York - beat the winner in the Duke of York last month, but Twilight Son clearly came on plenty for that run, and Magical Memory was behind him once again, finishing fourth.

The disappointment of the race was undoubtedly The Tin Man, who had cruised to success in a listed race at Windsor in May, but he was well below that form just over three weeks on, eventually finishing a well-beaten eighth. We may well see a rematch between several of the principals (though not the second Gold-Fun, who will reportedly return to Hong Kong) in the July Cup next month at Newmarket.

Candy admitted after the race that the build-up to this contest had not been easy. "It's not been easy recently with this one," said Candy. "I took him to Newbury recently to do a piece of work with him and he decided that he wanted to do two bits of work. He got rid of his work-rider and did a piece of work himself and then we did what we'd come there to do. Looking at him now after the race, he doesn't even want to come back! He's a strong character. After York (where he finished fifth in the Group Two Duke Of York Stakes behind Magical Memory), I realised that he probably needed quite a bit of work and I was quite hard on him.

"Today showed the results of that - he's certainly stayed on well enough. Being me, I've never come here thinking we'll ever have a winner! We've been close a good few times in the past and it's nice to get the job done finally - we've had to wait for it. I was thinking during the race that he was going to be third, especially when I saw Frankie (Dettori - rider of Magical Memory) thundering down the outside. He dug deep though and the chap on top (jockey Ryan Moore) dug deep too. I thought that if Ryan won the third (he won the first two races), then he definitely wouldn't win this one! It's a wonderful day - he's a top man isn't he?

"He's earned his place at Cheveley Park Stud (co-owners, along with Godfrey Wilson) now hasn't he? I hadn't quite realised what a state our horses were in when I took him to York. They were all getting to the furlong pole and then not going any further. It was nice to have a winner at Newbury last week though but they've been few and far between. I had to take fairly drastic measures with this guy which included the trip to Newbury. It was a fairly strong piece of work with La Rioja, who ran well yesterday (when fourth in the Group One Commonwealth Cup). He's done plenty since. It was unbelievable at Newbury really - both La Rioja and Twilight Son got rid of their riders and they a nice spin round loose. It wasn't funny at the time really! I could do without mornings like that!"

Godfrey Wilson, co-owner of Twilight Son, was clearly emotional after the race. "This is our first Royal Ascot winner - we have come close before but this is absolutely brilliant and I am very emotional," said Wilson. "This horse was bred by my wife and she won the small breeder of the year prize last year. She will be absolutely over the moon."

Ryan Moore gained his third success of the day on Twilight Son in the Group One Diamond Jubilee Stakes over six furlongs, bringing his Royal Ascot 2016 total to six - enough to clinch the QIPCO Leading Jockey Award for the week. His treble today came to 61.18/1. Moore said: "I always felt that, when I was going to ask him, he was going to win. "He travelled very strongly and, when I rode him here last year, he felt like a very good horse. It has obviously taken a while for him to come to hand but I felt Mr Candy (trainer Henry) was very confident. "This horse has done very little wrong - he has only been beaten a couple of times. He has proven himself as a high-class colt. The pace wasn't strong enough for him and it would have been better if they had gone quicker. "He is a very good colt and is getting more confident."

See the full result of the Diamond Jubilee here