French favourite Calandagan had to come from behind to pass Kalpana and land the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Saturday.

This on the day that Ascot announced the race will become Britain’s richest race worth £2 million in 2026.

Calandagan, ridden by Mickael Barzalona, provided French trainer Francis-Henri Graffard with his second successive success in the Group One classic after Goliath took this race 12 months ago.

In a strangely run race, it was expected that Aidan O’Brien’s outsider Continuos would make the running. However, it was left to Ryan Moore on Jan Brueghel to do all the donkey work.

Heading in to the straight, the Andrew Balding trained Kalpana took over at the head of the race with the filly showing an impressive turn of foot after kicking for home at the two furlong pole.

It was looking like the filly would go on and win but Calandagan had other ideas. Having to dig deep, eventually he quickened impressively and was going away to win by a length at the line.

Trainer Hugo Palmer completed a quickfire double after saddling Fitzella and Cheshire Dancer to victory in the course of half an hour.

The Too Darn Hot filly flew home on her debut at Ascot in May.

Under champion jockey Oisin Murphy, the two-year-old led from the start before coming under a little pressure a furlong from home. But she responded well from a tap from Murphy to win by a length.

The double was duly completed when Cheshire Dancer sprung a surprise in the Longines Valiant Stakes under a strong drive from Billy Loughnane to get up in a photo to score by a neck.

William Buick steered Words Of Truth to victory in the opener on the card.

By Peter Moore