News round-up: Antonius Pius will lead the Aidan O'Brien team into Royal Ascot action in tomorrow's St James's Palace Stakes. The colt that controversially threw away a winning chance in the French 2,000 Guineas will be joined by his stablemate Newton, and by the John Oxx-trained Azamour in the Group One contest.
A final total of 11 runners will line up for the mile highlight and they include the English Guineas winner Haafhd, the Irish Guineas hero Bachelor Duke and Brunel who won the German version. Diamond Green will be the sole French-trained runner.
O'Brien won the St James's Palace with Rock Of Gibraltar in 2002 and Black Minnaloushe the year before when the Ballydoyle trainer had four winners at the festival. Last year, however, O'Brien drew a blank.
His unbeaten colt Russian Blue has been ruled out of the Coventry Stakes tomorrow after a slight setback. "The horse has an abscess in his foot," explained O'Brien. "He is entered in one or two races later in the week and might run, depending on how long it takes to recover."
The Ballydoyle trainer, who has won the six-furlong Group Two contest in the past with Fasliyev (1999), Landseer (2001) and Statue Of Liberty (2002), will now rely on Oratorio in the Royal meeting's opening race. Oratorio won his only start in good style at the Curragh last month to book his ticket for Royal Ascot.
Powerscourt is the O'Brien runner in Wednesday's Prince Of Wales Stakes which is the most valuable race of the meeting.
John Oxx's only other runner besides Azamour is Barati who will line up for the King Edward VII Stakes.
Leading stayer Vinnie Roe leads a team that Dermot Weld describes as "small but select" at Royal Ascot this week and the Curragh trainer can get a pre-festival boost at Roscommon tonight with Soaringwitheagles.
A feature of the last ten days or so has been the sight of the Weld team starting to really get into gear and Soaringwitheagles looks up to scoring in the seven-furlong maiden.
This will be the first time he has encountered fast ground since his debut when a stable second string behind Medicianl at Gowran.
Three starts since have included a promising fourth to Esperanto at the Curragh and a rather less encouraging fifth to The Last Hurrah. However, the son of Woodman may be a different proposition on a quicker surface and Soaringwitheagles is preferred to the Gowran runner-up Mums Reward.
Bill Lee is on the Pat Hughes-trained Lil Doyle in the apprentice handicap and this four-year-old is 6lb higher in the ratings for a length and a half defeat of Hamairi at Downpatrick last month. This is an ultra-competitive event but Lil Doyle does look to hold sound claims. Hughes may also win the handicap chase with Samasakhan.
