Our ideal contender will be a four or five-year-old arriving here off the back of a victory and drawn in double figures - three strong trends for this handicap over 1m4f for older horses. Baghdad hit all the square on the head two years ago when justifying favouritism giving Mark Johnston a fourth win in this race.

Sir Michael Stoute has saddled six winners and three runners-up from his last 18 runners and the majority view was that his Kings Fete (close-up third) would have won in 2016 but for being squeezed up.

This handicap for three-year-old fillies over a mile has been part of Royal Ascot since 2002 but it isn’t that strong a stats race. For the fourth year it is being run as a standard handicap rather than a Listed handicap so to all intents and purposes, it is basically now the fillies’ Britannia Stakes.

Of the big three European versions of the 1000 Guineas, the Newmarket version has fared best being responsible for ten of the last 18 winners and seven of those finished in the first six at Newmarket so that has to the first port of call and starting with Mother Earth who then found just one too good in the French 1000 Guineas when attempting the Classic double. Especially as the second and fourth from Newmarket headed to the Oaks.
 

Axe, a 4-year-old Australian-bred gelding, was fourth in the Group 3 BRC Sprint at Doomben Racecourse in Australia on May 22, a performance that has gained significance in the last week.

Axe was beaten a little more than 1 1/4 lengths by the multiple stakes winner Emerald Kingdom, who was clear of runner-up Tofane. On June 12, Tofane won the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap at Eagle Farm Racecourse, a race in which Emerald Kingdom was eighth.

This will be the seventh edition of this Grade 1 race over 6f for three-year-olds which has proved to be such a hit, so race trends are only just starting to bed in hence the lack of pointers in the final summary. 

As with the Hampton Court Stakes run over 2f shorter for 3yos, the King Edward VII Stakes, which has been a punter-friendly race with 17 of the last 27 winners starting favourite or second favourite, was a Derby trial last year given the one-off changes to the racing calendar. Back to taking place after Epsom, seven winners since 1989 ran in the Derby.

Introduced into the Royal Meeting 19 years ago, this Group 3 6f race restricted to two-year-old fillies may not be as prestigious as the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes in terms of its official status but it has looked the classier of the two races in recent seasons.

Odds-on favorite Stradivarius was seeking his fourth straight win in the Group 1 Gold Cup on Thursday at Royal Ascot, but he was no match for runaway winner Subjectivist, a 4-year-old upstart who might be turning into the top staying horse in Europe.

There have been plenty of big races with short-priced favorites this week at Royal Ascot. Saturday’s feature, the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee over a straight six furlongs, is not one of them.

As of Thursday, early fixed-odds betting on the Diamond Jubilee had none of the 14 final entrants lower than 7-2. That price was on offer for Starman, a lightly raced 4-year-old with four wins from five starts, his record’s only blemish a failed attempt to handle a very soft Ascot course last fall in the British Champions Sprint Stakes.

Mohaafeth did not disappoint as the odds-on favorite in the Group 2 Hampton Court Stakes, rolling to a two-length victory in the 1 1/4-mile race for 3-year-olds after making a sustained run from well off a solid pace.