'We're confident he’s come forward' - can Bold Style reverse form with Boiling Point to land Listed event?
Favourites have a superb record in the William Hill King Charles II Stakes with seven of the last ten market leaders obliging in this Listed event.
Only a neck separated Boiling Point and Bold Style when they finished second and third over course and distance last month and the former currently heads the market. The winner of that conditions race, Ten Bob Tony, is running in Saturday’s 2,000 Guineas, so the form looks strong and Bold Style’s connections are confident he can reverse the form with the Roger Varian-trained runner-up.
Bold Style was beaten on his debut at Wolverhampton before winning his second start as a juvenile and his trainer Charlie Appleby expects him to come on for his last run.
“Bold Style has definitely improved since his run at the Craven meeting,” said Appleby, who won this race in 2022 with another Godolphin-owned and William Buick-ridden runner in Noble Truth.
“He’s reopposing Boiling Point, who was just in front of him last time, but we're confident he’s come forward.”
Buick knows all about turf debutante Queen Of Zafeen as Richard Hughes’s filly lost her unbeaten record under the rider when second to Watch My Tracer at Lingfield last time, although the winner of that Listed race hardly franked the form when tenth of 11 in the Greenham on his next start.
The form horse of the race is Indian Run on the strength of his Group 3 success in the Acomb Stakes at York's Ebor meeting last year. He was a length-and-a-half winner over Ballymount Boy, who then beat another of today's runners, Alaskan Gold, into second by half a length at Doncaster.
Although Indian Run was subsequently last of eight in the Dewhurst, that was on unsuitably soft ground at the highest level.
Indian Run’s trainer Eve Johnson Houghton said: “We’re desperate to get him out but we’ve been held up by the ground. Fingers crossed it’s not going to rain. He’s been training well, but he’ll come on for the run.”
The last of the six runners, Jehangeer, is the second string for owner Jaber Abdullah, whose Queen Of Zafeen will be ridden by Ryan Moore for the first time.
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- Morning updates: ground set to continue drying with no further rain expected on Derby day at Epsom
- David Jennings found the 13-2 Oaks winner and is back with more tips for all five ITV races from Epsom on Derby day
- Watch: Derby day preview and tipping show with top tipsters Tom Segal and Paul Kealy
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- Champions League final double odds boost: get 100-1 for Dortmund to win OR 40-1 for Real Madrid
- Epsom Derby betting offer: get £40 in free bets with Ladbrokes for the big race at Epsom
- Champions League final odds boost: claim Sky Bet's exclusive 50-1 odds for 1+ shots on target during Borussia Dortmund vs Real Madrid
- Jude Bellingham betting offer: get enhanced odds of 40-1 for Bellingham to have 1+ shots on target in the Borussia Dortmund vs Real Madrid Champions League final
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