Palace Pier puts unbeaten record on line in QEII

PA Sport Reporters
October 15, 2020 10:30 am

Gosden’s dual Group One winner to face 13 opponents at Ascot.

Palace Pier will face 13 rivals as he bids to maintain his unbeaten record in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Qipco British Champions Day.

John Gosden’s lightly-raced colt stepped up from winning a handicap at Newcastle soon after racing’s resumption in June to winning the St James’s Palace Stakes at the Royal meeting.

He then travelled to France to beat Europe’s best milers in the Prix Jacques le Marois and is an odds-on favourite to take his record to six from six.

Gosden also runs the filly Nazeef – who has been a star for connections this season, winning at Royal Ascot and also at the highest level in the Falmouth and Sun Chariot Stakes.

Palace Pier’s main rival could be last year’s runner-up The Revenant, who only made his seasonal reappearance at the recent Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe meeting when winning the Prix Daniel Wildenstein for a second time.

He found only King Of Change a length and a quarter too good 12 months ago, and will once again have the soft ground he so loves.

Aidan O’Brien runs Circus Maximus, the ultra-consistent four-year-old, but he has plenty of ground to make up on the favourite from their run in France two months ago.

O’Brien will also be represented by Lancaster House and Royal Dornoch.

Century Dream will run in the race for a third time, having finished third two years ago and seventh last year, while Lord Glitters will also be making his third appearance in the race.

Dark Vision, Escobar, Roseman, Sir Busker, Molatham and Sir Michael Stoute’s Veracious, last year’s Falmouth winner, complete the list.

There was no sign of Benbatl in either this race or the Champion Stakes, for Saeed bin Suroor.