The Ribblesdale isn't a massively strong trends race but it can still pay to look to a later-developing improver, as just seven winners in the last 30 years had been contesting Group races as a juvenile, so it boasts a very similar pattern in this respect to the colts' equivalent of this race at the Royal meeting in the King Edward VII Stakes.
A competitive handicap for three-year-olds over 1m4f. Regarding the draw, high numbers fared best last year, with Going The Distance in stall 18 beating Neski Sherelski in stall 19 (out of 20), meaning 11 of the last 14 winners have emerged from a double-digit stall since the revised numbering took place in 2011.
For whatever reason, the Norfolk Stakes has been a graveyard for favourite backers in more recent times as we have to go back to South Central in 2008 to locate the last successful market leader.
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Famed as the only horse to have beaten champion sprinter Ka Ying Rising, Wunderbar (128lb) catapulted John Size closer to a record-extending 13th Hong Kong trainers’ championship with a devastating return to form at Sha Tin on Saturday (14 June).
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Last year, 23 French raiders ran at Royal Ascot. Many of them came with great ambitions, like Facteur Cheval who was hoping to give Charyn a run for the money in the Queen Anne Stakes, but who ended up running no race at all after losing a shoe and being isolated on the far side where he raced far too keenly.
When France's leading trainer Francis-Henri Graffard ran Mandanaba in the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, surely he hoped to win France's 1000 Guineas. But the Pouliches also served as a means to an end, and that end comes Sunday at Chantilly in the Prix de Diane.
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Aidan O’Brien, the Master of Ballydoyle, who is the all-time leading trainer at Royal Ascot, will have another abundance of talent on display over the five days of prestigious event.
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Frankie Lor hopes Bottomuptogether can take a significant step towards Group company when the talented sprinter contests the HK$2.84 million Class 2 HKU Business School And Faculty Of Engineering Handicap (1200m) at Sha Tin on Saturday (14 June).
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Tom Collins has flagged up five fascinating contenders to keep onside in some of the most competitive races, live on Sky Sports Racing.
