Unbeaten Mahsoob tops Princess of Wales's field

The rapidly improving Mahsoob, a 4-year-old colt trained by John Gosden, will have his group stakes debut in Thursday’s $154,280 Princess of Wales’s Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on turf at Newmarket, England, the feature race on the first day of the track’s three-day July meeting.

Mahsoob is unbeaten in four starts, including the Wolferton Handicap at 1 1/4 miles at Royal Ascot on June 20. A Dansili colt owned by Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum of Dubai, Mahsoob won his debut on the all-weather surface at Kempton Park last November, and has won three handicaps on turf this year.

Mahsoob has been favored in each race, and is expected to be the top choice in a field of eight in the Group 2 Princess of Wales’s Stakes, the longest race of his career.

The competition includes Second Step, unraced since winning the Group 2 Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket on May 2; Gospel Choir, who has won his last three starts, all in stakes, over the last 14 months; and Hillstar, the winner of last year's Canadian International at Woodbine.

◗ In the $123,456 July Stakes for 2-year-olds, Areen and Steady Pace, second and third in the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 16, can win their first stakes in the race at six furlongs.