RACING: Ouija Board, the outstanding filly of last season, has a great opportunity to stamp her authority on the colts in what is not a vintage renewal of the Prince Of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot at York today.
There is always a question mark with four-year-old females staying in training, and she has had a couple of slight setbacks, but Ed Dunlop takes no chances with the best horse he has trained and she will go to the Knavesmire in fine order.
A blistering winner of the Epsom Oaks, as well as the Irish equivalent and the Breeders' Cup Turf, she was defeated but anything but disgraced in her only brush with the colts last season.
She was a close third to Bago in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe after getting no luck during the race before she finished with a rare rattle a bit too late.
It is a privilege to see a horse like Ouija Board still racing and she deserves to reward her sporting owner Lord Derby.
Best bet of the day, and one of the bankers of the meeting for many, is Mick Channon's speedy filly Flashy Wings, who puts her reputation on the line in the Queen Mary Stakes.
Channon has been comparing this daughter of Zafonic favourably to his other brilliant winners of this Group Two, Bint Allayl and Queen's Logic.
If that were not a high enough accolade, Flashy Wings has looked special on the track too. She beat the useful Oceans Apart a touch cosily on her debut, and sluiced up at Newbury last time, and it will take a good one to catch her.
Royal Prince deserves a change of fortune and appeals in the Royal Hunt Cup.
James Fanshawe's grey was prolific last term, winning twice in June before looking for a while to be in the grip of the handicapper, but rounded off the campaign with another victory in October.
He has been just as competitive this season off a higher mark, starting off at Sandown, where he finished second to the consistent Momtic, who scored decisively at Epsom recently.
He was disappointing at Goodwood last time when fifth, but it later emerged that he got very upset in the stalls.
Fanshawe saddled the winner of this valuable handicap two seasons ago with Macadamia, and Royal Prince looks quite progressive too.
The hugely popular Henry Cecil could grab a remarkable 71st winner at the meeting through Camacho in the Jersey Stakes. Lightly-raced after suffering a knee injury last year, Camacho returned to the track at Haydock last month to put in an eye-catching performance in a Listed sprint.
A July Cup entry, he quickened away to beat Nufoos by two and a half lengths, and, as that was only the third run of his life, he could be destined to go right to the top.
The Windsor Forest Stakes is a tricky affair with question marks over many, so the tentative vote goes to Fanshawe's Soviet Song.
