THREE racing personalities have indelible entries in their diaries next month but for different reasons.

To Clive Cox, it's business as usual with the annual pilgrimage to Royal Ascot. To Archie Watson and Brodie Hampton, it represents romance as they will exchange marriage vows.

And on Sunday they each had something to celebrate.

Katey Kontent underlined her speedy pedigree to land the juvenile conditions race to book her passage in the Queen Mary Stakes, running on gamely in the final furlong to thwart the challenge of the favourite Baccarat Baby who also stayed on well after the well supported Girlswannahavefun had set a scorching pace before fading out of the picture.

"Very pleased" was the understandable comment of Cox who had initially planned to run her at Ascot's evening card next week but recognised the need to give her an interim run and the proximity of the five-day jamboree.

"She's very green," he acknowledged. "She has always carried plenty of middle and is still learning her job. I knew she would run well and I have no doubt there is much more to come. She's a very lovely and exciting filly. Working well at home in one thing but running in a different environment of a racecourse is different, so I'm very pleased with that."

Luna Magis is hardly the fastest horse to grace the turf but she will always be found room in Hampton's heart as they gained their sixth win in the opening amateur riders' handicap, though it was an almost a slow-motion affair.

The old campaigner normally needs a mile to bring her stamina into play but after a series of disappointing runs, was surprisingly dropped back to seven furlongs and to use her jockeys' vocabulary, had to be "woken up early".

In truth, her rivals were cut from virtually the same cloth and Luna Magic, never far from the leaders, moved into a threatening position at halfway, but the trip is the absolute bare minimum she requires and it was only in the dying strides she eventually overhauled the pace making and enigmatically named Pope Gregory.

"We were flat out all the way," said a relieved Hampton who will be marrying winning trainer Archie Watson the day after Royal Ascot. "I kicked on three out. I wasn't sure we would get there but she's so game and we eventually did."

The biggest surprise of the afternoon was not so much on the track but off it when the stewards called an inquiry into possible interference in the 12-furlong maiden. True, Chairman did slightly drift off the fence but Trevor Whelan never had to stop riding the runner-up Valsad.

The Almanzor colt was beaten in a listed race at Epsom and trainer Martyn Meade found the ideal opportunity for a confidence booster.

"He was dropped in the deep end there and came up against a good one. He will step up to listed class again as I don't want to send him down the handicap route."

Though bereft of quality and quantity, Salisbury's oldest race was far from an uninteresting affair.

Callum Hutchinson was always travelling well on Spirit Mixer but found himself boxed in on the rails at the business end of the marathon handicap and it was a question of having to sit and suffer for the opening to appear. Thankfully, one materialised and the claimer, riding his second winner on the track, duly seized it to pass the odds on favourite Oman in the last 100 yards.

"I had to take my time," Hutchinson confirmed of the ground versatile four-year-old who had run well on his seasonal debut a fortnight ago and was stepping up in trip. "But we finally did get out and he was always doing enough."