Australian sprinter Scenic Blast scorched to victory on the opening day of Royal Ascot on Tuesday, racing away from a high-class field in the King's Stand Stakes. But the international limelight was shared when in the last race of the day outsider Strike The Tiger became the first horse trained in the US to win an event at the royal meeting. The Group One King's Stand Stakes held sway for the purists but victory for Strike The Tiger in the more modest Windsor Castle Stakes for two-year-olds was no less sweet for California trainer Wes Ward and jockey John Velazquez. Strike The Tiger was having only the second run of his career and although US raids on the royal meeting have been scarce over the years, Tuesday's victory could prompt more challenges. In other Group One action, trainer Aidan O'Brien won the St. James' Palace Stakes for the sixth time. But it was a desperately close race with Irish 2,000 Guineas hero Mastercraftsman fighting back to regain the lead and win by a neck from Delegator. There was a sting in the tail for the Irishman who picked up a one-day ban for excessive use of the whip and was later handed a six-day suspension for careless riding and failing to ride out to the finish in another race. The bans start on June 30. Murtagh already had a five-day ban on him for careless riding at Epsom earlier in the month. That penalty begins on Friday, meaning he misses the last two days of Ascot. In the first race of the day, the second favorite Paco Boy silenced critics who said he would not stay a mile when he swept to victory in the Queen Anne Stakes. Later in the day Hughes rode two more winners, on Canford Cliffs in the Coventry Stakes and Judgethemoment in the Ascot Stakes.
