Dubawi Heads James´s Field Dubawi, who was a gallant third in the Vodafone Derby last weekend, is one of 13 to stand their ground in the St James´s Palace Stakes on the first day of the Royal Ascot at York meeting next Tuesday. The Godolphin colt was a cosy winner of the Irish 2000 Guineas last month and will be dropping back to a mile in the Group One contest for three-year-olds should he take his chance. His trainer Saeed bin Suroor has also kept both Subpoena and Shamardal in at this stage, with the latter having landed last Sunday´s French Derby, adding to his earlier success in their 2000 Guineas. Aidan O´Brien has three representatives at the moment in Grand Central and Oratorio, who finished behind Dubawi at Epsom, while Middle Park winner Ad Valorem could make his seasonal debut. Other Irish raiders in the line-up are French Guineas second Indesatchel, trained by David Wachman, and Jim Bolger´s Democratic Deficit, who was third behind Dubawi at the Curragh and won at Leopardstown on Wednesday. The remainder are headed by John Gosden´s Newmarket Guineas flop Iceman, French Derby third Rocamadour plus Tucker, Vanadium and Kandidate. Kandidate excelled for his trainer Clive Brittain in the spring, finishing third in both the Craven and the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, the latter performance after quite unusual circumstances. 'He´ll also be entered in the Jersey Stakes, but I hope we´ll be leaning towards the St James´s Palace,' Brittain told At The Races. 'He ran a couple of fairly decent races in Dubai but he hit form in the Craven and then ran a blinder after getting loose the morning of the Guineas. 'He had a double gallop that day and I think the horse is coming back fresh and really working well. He looks to have a big chance.' (C) PA Sport
