Four for Royal Ascot: Tim Carroll

COOLANGATTA arrives having taken out the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes on her last start, a race won by four previous Australian sprinters before going on to win the King’s Stand at Ascot. Whilst she hasn’t reached the heights of Nature Strip, she is still a low-mileage, high-class, twice Group 1-winning sprinter, who had the subsequent winner of the T J Smith (a top-quality G1 sprint) in behind her when victorious last time. She looked magnificent at Ascot on Wednesday morning, something that’s not always a given with the Australian horses coming over from their winter, before impressing all in sundry with a very strong gallop.

SAKHEER was running in the wrong race, over the wrong trip, and on the wrong ground in the 2000 Guineas, and had to be ridden upside down as a result, but still ran with merit all things considered. He looked a tad special when winning the Mill Reef as a two-year-old, and I think we’re going to see a far better version now that he goes sprinting. Little Big Bear, who was behind him at Newmarket and has subsequently come out and won well dropped in trip, must be respected, but at the current prices (5/1 at the time of writing), I’m siding with Roger Varian’s three-year-old in the Commonwealth Cup.

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AMERICAN RASCAL, by the champion Curlin out of two-time Royal Ascot heroine Lady Aurelia, looked one right out of the top box when dotting up by just over 10 lengths in a valuable Keeneland maiden on his only start in April. He ran the quickest 4½f seen at Keeneland since Kimari (runner-up in both the Queen Mary and Commonwealth Cup) in 2019, and all with his rider barely moving. From a Royal Ascot perspective, what was most impressive is that he didn’t lead, and that he ran through the line with plenty of purpose. His trainer, who has won the Norfolk Stakes twice in the past, compared him favourably with his 2013 winner No Nay Never, and he has also breezed on the turf at Palm Meadows.

ARTORIUS returns having been a luckless third in the Jubilee Stakes last year, when beaten less than a length after a tardy start and having to change course during the latter stages. He arrives in better form this year having won a Group 1 at Randwick on his return, before being beaten less than a length by Anamoe, again at the top level, when last seen in March. He’s not the best Australian horse to visit these shores, but he’s the perfect type for this 6f test in that he runs out a mile back home. Ideally, he’ll want a solid tempo to aim at, and he’ll also need the gaps to come when looking to thread the needle late, but he will be hard to hold out if it all comes together.

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Tim's Four for Royal Ascot

COOLANGATTA (King’s Stand Stakes, 3.40 Tuesday)

AMERICAN RASCAL (Norfolk Stakes, 2.30 Thursday)

SAKHEER (Commonwealth Cup, 3.05 Friday)

ARTORIUS (Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Stakes, 3.20 Saturday)