16:25 Royal Ascot: St James’s Palace Stakes
- Race details: 1 mile (old), Group 1, 3-year-olds only
- 2023 winner: Paddington (16/5) – Ryan Moore (J), Aidan O’Brien (T)
- Recent Trends: All of the last 22 winners priced 10/1 or less, 10/16 winning favourites
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The quality of this field is illustrated by the fact that three of the first five home in last month’s 2000 Guineas line up to renew their rivalry here, with Newmarket runner-up Rosallion looking to reverse that result by turning the tables on Classic winner Notable Speech.
Backers of the latter will get nothing like the 16/1 price carried by Charlie Appleby’s colt when he romped home at Newmarket, but for a horse that only had three all-weather outings prior to his triumph on turf debut, we might not yet have seen the best of this four-time unbeaten three-year-old.
Suggested bet: Notable Speech in the 16:25 at Royal Ascot
Notable Speech has not run since that day, but Rosallion showed his own progress by bouncing back to win the Irish 2000 Guineas at the expense of stablemate Haatem just three weeks later, and Richard Hannon’s colt looks certain to give another good account here.
Henry Longfellow is the only runner anywhere near those two in the betting, and as a part of the Aidan O’Brien/Ryan Moore team, it would be no surprise to see him bounce back from a mid-division finish at the French 2000 Guineas and reproduce the form that saw him go unbeaten in three juvenile outings at the Curragh last term.
The rest of the field are all available at 18/1 or more at the time of writing, which indicates the size of their task in splitting the three high-class prinicipals, but of the five Unquestionable is the one to have created a stir among Tipstrr’s each-way specialists.
O’Brien’s second string entrant is clearly no mug at this level, having finished runner-up to Rosallion in a Group 1 at Longchamp last October and coming a decent fourth behind the same rival in last month’s Irish 2000 Guineas.
Each-way punt: Unquestionable each-way in the 16:25 at Royal Ascot
He should be all the better for that outing and could well be primed to reproduce the kind of form that saw him round off his 2023 campaign with a tidy 1½-length victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita in November.
He will probably need to improve on that performance to stay within touching distance of his more esteemed rivals here, but in the capable hands of Wayne Lordan, Unquestionable might just have enough to force his way into the each-way mix.
- Tip advised by Sotnas Horse Racing on Tipstrr
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