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The weather looks wonderful for at least the first two days of the Royal meeting
This mean that the ground will be good and good to firm in places while much of the form has been based on softer going.
As usual the Queen Anne starts things off with the G1 attracting 11 runners to charge down the straight and we have an odds-on favourite here in Palace Pier for the Gosdens with Dettori riding. The strongest opposition will come from the Aidan O'Brien pair of Order of Australia under Ryan Moore and Lope Y Fernandez under Seamie Heffernan.
Our roughie here is Lord Glitters, who had a very good season at Meydan so we hope that the weather and firmer track here may cause him to think he is back in Dubai and make his 20/1 quote look very enticing. He won this race in 2019 too!
The Coventry Stakes G2 over 1200m has 17 2yos lining up. Wesley Ward is bringing over the exciting Kaufeymaker and his jockey John Velazquez. Kaufeymaker, a son of Jimmy Creed, won his debut race by 6 ¼ lengths and looks like he could be special. Masseto is from Donnacha O'Brien's yard with Gavin Ryan on board the son of Territories and they are on 11/2, as is Aidan's son of Churchill The Acropolis with Ryan Moore riding.
Our sort-of roughie (they are only 2yos after all) is Tolstoy 10/1 for the Gosdens-Dettori partly because of his name – he's by Kingman out of the mare War And Peace!
The King's Stand G1 is a cavalry charge down the 1000m with 16 runners. Battash comes in as favourite for Hills-Crowley, with Tim Easterby's Winter Power coming in at 4/1 with Silvestre de Souza on 4/1.
We are going very wide here as this is the sort of race where anything can win and we will add a Royal e/w with the Queen's King's Lynn on 20/1 – Andrew Balding and Oisin Murphy with the royal runner who has been improving with every race.
Also on that quote Harry's Bar and it is not because we have spent quite a bit of time in the locale for which the horse is named! He's by Exceed and Excel and should like the good ground. Adrien McGuiness and Ronan Whelan and the quote is 33/1.
The St. James's Palace Stakes is G1 over 1600m on the round course and has 13 starters. Pocket Flare is running in his 4th G1 race over the last 6 weeks so he ought to be very fit indeed. Jim Bolger and Kevin Manning combine and the quote is 4/1. Mostfahdof won a Listed race at his last outing for the Gosdens and Jim Crowley and he comes in here on 9/2.
Battleground for Aidan – Ryan Moore is on 6/1, but the horse we like best here is Highland Avenue for Charley Appleby and William Buick and they are on 6/1 as well. Buick is now leading the jockey's championship after a double at Doncaster on Sunday.
And yes we have a roughie here too – Maximus, trained by Sir Michael Stoute and you have to always respect his runners particularly at this meeting. Colin Keane has the ride and he is down on trip to his last couple of outings but we do not see that as a negative. 22/1.
