David Simcock is expecting even better things from Balios after the lightly-raced colt gave the Newmarket trainer his first Royal Ascot winner in the King Edward VII Stakes.
The winner of a Kempton maiden last November before being narrowly denied on his seasonal debut at Newmarket, Balios was a 3-1 shot for this Group Two contest and was dropped out last by Jamie Spencer.
Magic Dancer and Mr Singh disputed much of the running and the latter looked as though he may have stolen a march when kicking on from the home turn, but Balios got rolling once straightened up and passed the post a length and a quarter to the good.
"Getting my first Royal Ascot winner is a great relief. Everybody wants a winner here," said Simcock.
"We've never made a secret of what we feel about this horse. Going to Newmarket last time he was a little inexperienced.
"We never thought about the Derby as he was still an immature horse although he has always shown up well at home.
"He's a horse we're likely to have around for the next two or three years.
"I think in 12 months' time he will be a really nice horse. He won't be over-raced this year. The maximum he will have is three more runs.
"We will choose our races quite carefully. He's a horse for the future.
"He's not a horse for the St Leger. We'll look for races between 10 and 12 furlongs."
Spencer said: "He gets the trip well and is very lightly raced, there's plenty of improvement in him."
The strongly-fancied Stravagante was pulled up lame by Frankie Dettori after losing his action.
Ryan Moore overtook legends Lester Piggott and Pat Eddery to set a modern-day record nine winners at the Royal meeting with victory on Aloft (5-2 favourite) in the Queen's Vase.
Moore rode a patient race on the Aidan O'Brien-trained colt, who was having his first race since finishing second in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster last October.
It was hard work over the marathon distance, but Aloft responded admirably considering his lengthy absence and got up to beat Tommy Docc and Future Empire by half a length and the same.
Moore said: "It was a very messy race, I was slowly away and in a bad position and having to pick my way, he was a bit rusty all the way round.
"He's a fair horse this fellow. He's open to all sorts of improvement, it's his first run of the year and you wouldn't know where he could end up."
Moore preferred to concentrate about his rides on Saturday before taking in his achievement.
He said: "It's not something that you think about. I'll think about tomorrow then we will worry about this."
O'Brien said: "He suited the race today. We had him ready to run at Newmarket earlier on in the season but he had a few little setbacks.
"He stays well so the St Leger would have to be a possible now. He wants nice ground, though. He is a nice moving horse."
Aloft is 10-1 from 16s for the Ladbrokes St Leger at Doncaster with Paddy Power.
Arab Dawn (6-1 joint-favourite) was a determined winner of the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes to give Richard Hughes a double after victory on Illuminate in the Albany Stakes.
The Hughie Morrison-trained four-year-old had shaped well on his comeback when third at Newmarket and moved nicely throughout.
The grey battled his way to the front inside the final two furlongs and held Ajman Bridge by half a length.
"The long and the short of it is that we don't spend hundreds and thousands of pounds on horses, so though we have won Group races, we have to go for the handicaps and we've got a great group of owners," said Morrison.
"They had plenty of offers for this horse at the end of last year and they stuck by my enthusiasm to improve this horse. It's great what a plan comes off."
Pat Dobbs, who partnered third-placed Astronereus, was given a two-day ban (July 3 and 5) for careless riding.
