The late great Scat Daddy has taken all before him this year with his star performer,
the unbeaten Triple Crown hero Justify leading the way. Another of his
offspring in flying mare Lady Aurelia will seek to make it back to back wins in
the Group I King's Stand Stakes tonight.The Wesley Ward trained four year-old is on her third trip to Royal Ascot having won the Group II Queen Mary Stakes as a two year-old and she is a hot favourite to keep her perfect record at the world's most famous race meeting intact.
Group I winning sprinter No Nay Never is the first son of Scat Daddy to go to stud and has three runners in the Group II Coventry Stakes – Cosmic Law, The Irish Rover and No Needs Never.
Cosmic Law has won two of three starts and at 10-1 is the best chance of the trio according to the market.
The co-favourite Calyx is by another first season sire in Invincible Spirit's champion son Kingman, while the other co-favourite at 5-2 is Scat Daddy colt Sergei Prokofiev from the powerful Ballydoyle stable of Aidan O'Brien..
Interesting runner in the Group I Queen Anne Stakes is French trained Recoletos, a last start Group I winner of the Prix d'Ispahan at Longchamp.
Recoletos is from a half-sister to the dam of the Fastnet Rock colt that topped the Inglis Great Southern Weanling Sale on Sunday when fetching $300,000, so his new owners Kia Ora Stud / Bhima Thoroughbreds will be cheering him on.
Freakish champion Frankel, now a leading sire, is set to play a role tonight with unbeaten three year-old Without Parole testing his mettle against the better colts including Holy Roman Emperor's Irish Two Thousand Guineas winner Romanised in the Group I St James's Palace Stakes. The winners of the English and French Two Thousand Guineas races are absent, so it gives Without Parole a real chance to step up successfully to elite company.
Stay tuned tonight for all the action.
