Royal Ascot: St. James´s Palace Stakes (Group One) 16.50 CET

The St. James´s Palace Stakes is one of the most competitive races of the week and is certainly the best 3yo mile race of the season, with the first 3 from the English 2,000 Guineas, the first and fourth from the Irish equivalent, and the beaten favourite from the French version. That was the Aga Khan´s Siyouni (Alain de Royer-Dupré/ Christophe Lemaire), who was badly hampered and is strongly fancied to put the matter straight this afternoon.

His compatriot Makfi (Mikael Delzangles/ Olivier Peslier) is undefeated and comes here after his convincing victory at Newmarket. He is difficult to assess but clearly very smart. Richard Hannon´s pair Dick Turpin (Ryan Moore) and Canford Cliffs (Richard Hughes) finished second and third and Newmarket, with the former runner-up again in the French Guineas and the latter then winning the Irish version very impressively. Steinbeck (Aidan O´ Brien/ Johnny Murtagh) finished fourth there on his seasonal debut; he is bound to come on for that and we make him our speculative choice. He has always been highly rated but has so far not been able to show his true form because of various setbacks. he is accompanied by two pacemakers and may prove today just how good he is.