ROYAL Ascot got underway on Tuesday and, while the weather wasn't great, the action on the track was fantastic.

The feature race on the first day was the St James's Palace Stakes, a race that was billed as the clash of the 2,000 Guineas winners, and Galileo Gold came out on top under Frankie Dettori to stamp his authority on the Classic generation with a dazzling performance.

The Newmarket Classic winner, trained by Hugo Palmer, travelled like a dream and kicked away from his rivals inside the final two furlongs to score at 6-1, with the 4-5 favourite and French Guineas winner The Gurkha in second, and the Irish Guineas conqueror Awtaad in third.

It was an inspired ride from Dettori, who managed to grab the rail despite having the widest draw as he settled in second place behind the pacemaker Cymric throughout the early stages of the contest, and Palmer was full of praise for his rider.

"It was a tough challenge; he got the most magnificent ride from the widest draw," said the trainer. "It's fair to say he's the best three-year-old colt in Europe."

Palmer added: "He ran a huge race in Ireland, but he wasn't able to use his stride there. At Newmarket and here today the horse's stride was never broken. Frankie managed to get him into the most magnificent rhythm and then the horse just galloped and galloped and galloped."

A disappointment at Ascot was Mecca's Angel, who had an off day, but her trainer Michael Dods has another talented daughter of Dark Angel in Easton Angel judging by the ease with which she took the feature race at Sandown last Saturday under Paul Mulrennan.

There will not be many easier winners over five furlongs this year and victory looked assured as early as halfway, with Mulrennan motionless and oozing confidence as he surveyed his toiling rivals.

The only question left was what she would find when asked and the answer was emphatic.

"We felt she had improved a lot from York and, although she was in the King's Stand, we felt another run like that would help to get her confidence high," said Dods, who revealed she would be kept to the minimum trip.

"She did it well there and is now probably ready for a step up in class, but still at five furlongs as she is all about speed. She has such a high cruising speed and she can quicken off it."

While Mecca's Angel has proved difficult to place due to her need for cut in the ground, Easton Angel won here on good to firm and, having landed her maiden on soft, looks far more versatile.

Dipping into the jumps, Brian Toomey didn't enjoy a fairytale farewell from his career in the saddle as the miracle jockey was brought down in his final ride at Stratford on Tuesday afternoon.

Toomey was given just a three per cent chance of survival after suffering terrible head injuries in a Perth fall during the summer of 2013.

Having spent 157 days in hospital, the 27-year-old completed an astonishing recovery when returning at Southwell in July last year, but found opportunities limited and decided to retire as a jockey.

Toomey partnered City Dreams for Philip Kirby at Stratford, but the pair came down at the fourth flight, with the mare sadly suffering a fatal injury.

Speaking post-race, Toomey said: "That's me done now as I am going back to Ireland to hopefully get some support as I would dearly love to stay in racing in one way or another, but I will not be riding again.

"It's such a shame the last ride had to end this way with the mare being fatally injured as she definitely did not deserve that. She had jumped and travelled better until we were brought down.

"Obviously I was wishing for the fairytale ending, but it was not to be and when everything has died down and I can reflect properly on what has happened, it might just sink in how lucky I have been just to be here."

He has been lucky, very lucky, and we all wish him well.