It has been several years since a truly exceptional European miler graced overseas racecourses, but Palace Pier might be special. Making his first group stakes start at spectator-free Royal Ascot in 2020, Palace Pier defeated Pinatubo, champion 2-year-old of 2019, in the Group 1 St. James’s Palace Stakes, and with fans in the stands Tuesday, Palace Pier looks a near cinch to win the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes, first race of the 2021 Royal Ascot meeting. Palace Pier is expected to face 11 rivals in the Queen Anne, a straight-course mile that plays, thanks to a testing uphill finish, a little longer than its raw distance. The Queen Anne is the first of three Group 1s, followed by the King’s Stand and the St. James’s Palace, on a seven-race card beginning at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. You can watch and wager on all the Ascot action at DRFBets.com. :: Royal Ascot 2021: Get PPs, previews, analysis, recaps and more Trained by the father-son team of John and Thady Gosden, Palace Pier went from his good-ground Ascot win last summer to capture the Group 1 Jacques le Marois over a heavy course at Deauville. A very soft autumn course at Ascot last fall in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, where Palace Pier was an odds-on favorite, proved too much for the 3-year-old to overcome and he finished third, his lone loss in seven starts. Already this season Palace Pier, a son of Kingman (sire of American star Domestic Spending) and the Nayef mare Beach Frolic, won the Group 2 Sandown Mile by eight lengths and the Group 1 J.T. Lockinge Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths, his Lockinge dominance greater than his margin of victory. On good, solid ground Tuesday he should prove very difficult to defeat under his regular rider, Frankie Dettori. The Queen Anne drew the first- and third-place finishers, Order of Australia and Lope Y Fernandez, from the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Mile, but neither is in the same league as Palace Pier. Tilsit, an improving 4-year-old cutting back in distance following a good second to French stalwart Skalleti, could spark decent exotic-wager payoffs. Battaash is the big name in the King’s Stand, a straight-course five-furlong sprint. A gelding who markedly prefers firmer going, Battaash lost his cool before the 2018 King’s Stand and still finished second to the excellent Blue Point, who beat him again in 2019 before Battaash dominated this race in 2020. A 7-year-old gelding trained by Charlie Hills, Battaash won last year’s King’s Stand racing fresh and Tuesday makes his first start since August. Three-year-old Winter Power is second favorite to Battaash in early betting thanks to some sharp sprint form and a 10-pound break in the weights. Oxted and Liberty Beach were the two others priced in single digits by English bookmakers as of Friday, and the two Americans in the race, Extravagant Kid and Maven, aren’t without hope. Maven, who raced overseas for trainer Wesley Ward as a 2-year-old, looked like a different horse in his lone start at 4, his first race since being gelded. Maven at ages 2 and 3 had an undescended, rotated testicle that caused him discomfort, Ward said. As for Extravagant Kid, he won the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint down a straight six furlongs at Meydan in his most recent start and comes to England in excellent form. “It’s a stiff five-eighths, and I know it’s not flat ground like Dubai, but he’ll like it,” trainer Brendan Walsh said. “I think he can move up off his Dubai run, if anything.” The Gosdens and Shadwell Estate Company, which campaigns Battaash, look live in the St. James’s Palace, a one-turn mile, with the unexposed colt Mostahdaf. By Frankel, who won this race in 2011, Mostahdaf has won all three of his starts, a pair of all-weather races at Newcastle and a listed turf race last month at Sandown. This is typical Gosden preparation, giving a talented young horse confidence and foundation in modest company before stepping them up in class, and Mostahdaf should be set for a peak performance. He’ll have to beat Poetic Flare, the Jim Bolger-trained homebred who managed to make three Guineas starts – winning in England, running unplaced in France, finishing second in Ireland – this spring and still have energy for an Ascot tilt. Lucky Vega also merits respect having finished fourth when well backed in the Irish 2000 Guineas, a race run over ground likely softer than he prefers. Godolphin’s Highland Avenue chased home Mostahdaf in the Sandown listed stakes, while Aidan O’Brian runs Battleground, Roman Empire, and Wembley. In the Group 2 Coventry, for 2-year-olds over a straight six furlongs, Ward sends out Kaufymaker, the only filly among 29 entrants. Ridden by John Velazquez, Kaufymaker, the antepost favorite as of Friday, gets three pounds from her male rivals and might have more speed than any of them. “In my mind, she’s the favorite just knowing the ability of the filly,” Ward said. “Colts or fillies, she’s the best I have over six furlongs right now.”