A horse owned by the Queen is firming as the biggest threat to dual Cox Plate winner So You Think landing the 10th Group One win of his career at Royal Ascot.
Carlton House, a placegetter in last year’s English Derby, is rated 3-1 second favourite behind So You Think to win the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes on Thursday morning (AEST).
So You Think is the latest Royal Ascot favourite to be posted in red figures with British bookmakers offering 10-11 about his chances.
The entire’s Prince Of Wales’s quote tightened when French star Cirrus Des Aigles was a confirmed non-runner.
“I decided to go back to 2400 metres in preparation for the King George and this way we avoid having to travel twice,” trainer Corine Barande-Barbe told UK thoroughbred newspaper Racing Post.
Trained by Michael Stoute, Carlton House resumed from a long break in winning form at Sandown last month.
He scored a 1-3/4 length win in the Brigadier Gerard Stakes to confirm a Royal Ascot start.
So You Think will have 10 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes rivals with Planteur, to be ridden by glamour jockey Christophe Soumillon, rated a 9-1 chance.
The most recent of So You Think’s nine Group One wins came in last month’s Tattersall’s Gold Cup at The Curragh.
He won the same race last year before finishing second to Rewilding in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes.
Trained in Australia by Bart Cummings, So You Think was bought by Ireland’s Coolmore operation after his second Cox Plate in 2010.
He has been added to the Coolmore shuttle stallion roster and will serve his first book of mares in the Australian spring.
