Ben Coen rides Champers Elysees at Royal Ascot© Photo Healy Racing
It will be a big day for young rider Ben Coen on Wednesday when he partners Champers Elysees in a field of 13 in the Group 2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes at Royal Ascot.
It will be the fourth time for Coen to ride the daughter of Elzaam, and he won a Listed race at Galway on her last year.
Johnny Murtagh's filly has to shoulder a 5lb penalty, having won the Group One Matron Stakes last year.
William Jarvis’ Lady Bowthorpe, who carries a 3lb penalty for winning the Dahlia Stakes at Newmarket earlier in the season, was the only one to put up a fight against Palace Pier in the Lockinge at Newbury last month, and is back against her own sex this time.
Sir Michael Stoute’s Queen Power is another with a 3lb penalty, following her easy win in the Middleton Stakes at York last time out.
Other fillies in the mix include Chris Wall’s improving Double Or Bubble, Andrew Balding’s Bounce The Blues, the Charlie Fellowes-trained Onassis, winner of the Sandringham at the meeting last year, and Archie Watson’s Parent’s Prayer.
In the opening Albany Stakes, red-hot juvenile trainer George Boughey runs Beautiful Sunshine (Tom Marquand) and White Jasmine (Hollie Doyle).
Wesley Ward fields Twilight Gleaming; Stuart Williams runs the unbeaten Desert Dreamer, and Clive Cox is represented by Crazyland and Get Ahead. Aidan O’Brien runs the War Front filly, Yet.
O’Brien has Amalfi Coast in the Windsor Castle — in which former top-class jockey Darryll Holland sends out his first Royal Ascot runner as a trainer in Silks Pass.
Michael Bell’s Spring Is Sprung, owned by the Queen, Boughey’s Superior Force, Ward’s Golden Bell and Ruthin and John Quinn’s Tipperary Sunset are others of note.
In the Queen’s Vase, O’Brien is represented by Wordsworth (Ryan Moore), Kyprios (Seamie Heffernan) and Arturo Toscanini (Wayne Lordan).
Mark Johnston’s Dancing King arrives on a five-timer, while stablemate Golden Flame has also won his last two.
Charlie Appleby’s Kemari and John and Thady Gosden’s Stowell are two lightly-raced types who look capable of better.
Haqeeqy aims to add to his Lincoln win for the Gosdens as he tackles the Royal Hunt Cup, in which Bell Rock is top weight.
Brunch, Maydanny, Grove Ferry and Saturday’s Sandown winner Trais Fluors also line up.
Stoute’s Lights On heads the weights in the Kensington Palace Stakes, for fillies and mares.
