Our Irish Eyes column previews Wednesday at Royal Ascot and believes a change of plan for Highland Reel can pay dividends.
Recommended bets: Irish Eyes
2pts win Highland Reel, Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, 4.20 Royal Ascot at best morning price
1pt each-way: Rain Goddess, Sandringham Handicap, 5.35 Royal Ascot at 14/1
Saturday’s Hardwicke Stakes was the initial plan for Highland Reel, following his Coronation Cup win at Epsom, but the Prince of Wales’s Stakes came back on the agenda following defections of the likes of Cloth Of Stars and So Mi Dar.
Ultimately it was decided there was little to be gained by adding a Group Two to a dance card that already comprises five wins at the highest level and the weakened Prince Of Wales’s was too good an opportunity to turn down.
Obviously the step back to 10f will put some people off but he did win the Grade One Secretariat Stakes over this trip in Arlington and was a good second in the Prix du Jockey Club over half a furlong further. The stiff track at Ascot will put that little bit more emphasis on stamina than either Arlington or Chantilly so there are no worries on that score.
He was beaten a mere head by Dartmouth in the Hardwicke at this meeting last year when a combination of good to soft going and the jockey losing his whip didn’t help but he put that right when he returned to the track the following month to reverse that form emphatically when winning the King George with Dartmouth 2½ lengths behind in third on good to firm ground.
The joint-top rated horse in the race with Highland Reel, the John Gosden-trained Jack Hobbs, has to be feared along with the unexposed Ulysses while Queen’s Trust is expected to leave her seasonal debut well behind but ultimately Highland Reel should just about have enough.
Another O’Brien again supplies the each-way bet on the card in the shape of Rain Goddess, top-weight in the Listed Sandringham Handicap which closes the card.
Like Winter, Rain Goddess won her two-year-old maiden for David Wachman before being transferred to Ballydoyle upon Wachman’s retirement. She caught the eye in the 1000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown before a good, staying-on, fourth place finish in the Fred Darling at Newbury.
Both races were over an inadequate 7f and she took a big step up in class to contest the French 1000 Guineas on her last start. She finished fifth there, just four lengths off the winner, and that form is the best on offer in this Listed event.
The fact this is a handicap complicates matters of course but nevertheless 14/1 on offer about an Aidan O’Brien-trained, Ryan Moore-ridden filly that is not far off the best of her generation means she is more than worthy of getting the each-way vote from this column.
Posted 1142 BST on 20/06/2017