Kalpana returns to Royal Ascot on Saturday with Andrew Balding’s mare set to start among the leading players in a deep Hardwicke Stakes.
The Group 2 over just shy of a mile and a half is one of the strongest races on the final afternoon, with the Racing Post racecard listing 12 runners on good-to-firm ground and a first prize of GBP141,775.
Kalpana is drawn in stall two, carries 9st, and will be ridden by Colin Keane for Balding.
For a meeting that has already delivered major performances from Scandinavia, Precise and Venetian Sun, this is another race with proper substance rather than a soft Saturday staging post.
Kalpana brings course-and-distance authority, top-level Ascot form and a profile that still leaves room for further sharpening over this trip.
Having won the 2025 British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes at the track last season.
Kalpana faces a proper Ascot test
Timeform’s Hardwicke Stakes preview makes Kalpana the market leader and notes the chance for her to record a third Ascot success.
That is the central thread of the race: she is not arriving as a fashionable name alone, but as a mare with enough proven Ascot quality to deserve her place at the head of the discussion.
The opposition ensures nothing is handed to her. Jan Brueghel brings Ballydoyle strength under Ryan Moore, Goliath returns to a course where his best form gives him real weight, while Giavellotto, Ethical Diamond and Best Secret add more international depth to a race that should take plenty of winning.
ReadHorseRacing has already set up the final afternoon with our Royal Ascot day-five trends and stats, Saturday Royal Ascot each-way selections and the latest Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes update.
The Hardwicke gives the card its middle-distance anchor, and Kalpana is the horse who can turn that anchor into one of the defining results of the day.
