Big guns stand ground in tantalising Prince of Wales’s

Top-class field looks assured for Wednesday’s highlight.

Charlie Appleby’s 2021 Derby and King George hero Adayar will face a maximum of seven rivals in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot on Wednesday.

The son of Frankel was brilliant in winning at Epsom and Ascot respectively a couple of years ago, but endured an interrupted four-year-old campaign last season, making it to the track on only two occasions.

Adayar readily dispatched of a couple of rivals on his Doncaster comeback before finishing second in the Champion Stakes – and proved his ability remains very much intact when beating subsequent Group One winner Anmaat in last month’s Gordon Richards Stakes at Newmarket.

Luxembourg after winning the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh
Luxembourg after winning the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh (Niall Carson/PA)

The five-year-old disputes favouritism for the Group One feature on day two of the Royal meeting with Aidan O’Brien’s Luxembourg.

The Camelot colt is following a tried-and-tested route, having won the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh on his most recent outing, his third win at Group One level.

He looks set to renew rivalry with Sir Michael Stoute’s Bay Bridge, who beat Adayar in the Champion Stakes in October and was only half a length behind Luxembourg in Ireland a few weeks ago.

O’Brien’s apparent second string Bolshoi Ballet, the William Haggas-trained pair of Dubai Honour and My Prospero, John and Thady Gosden’s Mostahdaf and Kenny McPeek’s American raider Classic Causeway complete the potential field.

The seven-race card gets under way with the Group Two Queen Mary Stakes, which has attracted 33 speedy juvenile fillies. Leading contenders include Jane Chapple-Hyam’s Born To Rock, Karl Burke’s Beautiful Diamond and Crimson Advocate, a trans-Atlantic challenger for George Weaver.

Joseph O’Brien appears to have a particularly strong hand in the other Group Two on the card – the Duke of Cambridge Stakes.

The Owning Hill handler is responsible for three of the 15 fillies still in contention, with ante-post favourite Jumbly joined by Goldana and Honey Girl.

John Gosden is hoping Laurel can show her true colours in the one-mile contest after disappointing against the boys in the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury.

“I think she somewhat over-raced and was too fresh (in the Lockinge),” he told Sky Sports Racing.

“The Shadwell horse (Mutasaabeq) went a blistering gallop, she didn’t think that was fast enough and started taking Frankie on and naturally paid the price between the two and the one.

“I think having got that behind her now – that exuberance and that freshness – I hope she will run more of a race where she builds a rhythm and finishes strongly.

“She was a filly who was really immature as a two-year-old and only came to herself really late on. She’s a filly who I think has improved again between three and four and I’m hopeful of a big run.”

A total of 33 entries have been made for the Kensington Palace Fillies’ Handicap, while 61 have horses have stood their ground for the Royal Hunt Cup, with Migration heading the weights and the King’s Saga also in the mix.

Arrest, a Derby disappointment for the Gosdens, heads 22 contenders for the Queen’s Vase and 46 go forward for the concluding Windsor Castle Stakes.

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