RACING/Royal Ascot: Gradera rescued a potentially bleak week for Godolphin by continuing his owners' domination of the Prince Of Wales's Stakes with a dynamic performance at Royal Ascot yesterday.

He was only running as a reserve for Sheikh Mohammed's organisation, which had warned seven days ago that it had a "particularly weak team" for the Royal meeting.

Ridden from behind by Frankie Dettori as stable-companion Sydenham set a strong pace, Grandera simply cruised through the field in the straight and could be called the winner a long way from home.

The four-year-old hit the front over a furlong out and burst clear to score by a most emphatic five lengths from Indian Creek, with Banks Hill just beating Nayef for third place.

His success means Godolphin have won each of the three runnings of this 10-furlong race since it was promoted to Group One status, with Grandera emulating his owners' former stars Dubai Millennium and Fantastic Light.

Pat Eddery drew alongside his great friend Lester Piggott in the all-time standings for British winners as Romantic Liason took the Queen Mary Stakes.

It was win number 4,493 for the evergreen 50-year-old and his 73rd success at Royal Ascot, making him by far and away the leading rider at the meeting.

The pair are now jointly the second most prolific winning riders on the Flat behind Sir Gordon Richards, who amassed a staggering 4,870 victories.

For 11-times champion jockey Eddery the win marked a special landmark in his career, although he maintains that he has no plans to call it a day in the near future.

"Lester will be chuffed for me," he said. "We have been good friends for a long time."

Mark Johnston showed that Aidan O'Brien's two-year-olds can be beaten when his 25 to 1 shot Helm Bank fought back bravely to short-head 1 to 2 favourite Tomahawk in the Chesham Stakes, with stable-companion Celtic Sapphire just a neck further back in third.

Kieren Fallon continued to get his own back on the Ascot Stakes, in which he suffered a career-threatening shoulder injury in a fall two years ago.

The champion jockey bounced back to win the two-and-a-half-mile handicap last season on Cover Up and he repeated the feat today on Riyadh, holding off the strong-finishing Establishment by a head to give trainer Martin Pipe his fourth win in the race.

"He is the ideal type for this race," Fallon said of the winner. "Like Cover Up last year he travels well and he doesn't mind finding trouble."