Too Darn Hot and King Of Comedy set to represent Gosden in St James's Palace

John Gosden could be two-handed in next Tuesday's Group 1 St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot with stablemates Too Darn Hot and King Of Comedy set to lock horns.

The Newmarket trainer has a good recent record in one of the traditional highlights of the opening day, having won it with Kingman (2014) and Without Parole a year ago.

Too Darn Hot is set for a rematch with his Irish 2,000 Guineas conqueror Phoenix Of Spain while King Of Comedy will be stepping into Group 1 company for the first time.

The latter is following the exact same path as Without Parole, who won a mile novice under a penalty on his reappearance at Yarmouth before following up in the Listed Heron Stakes at Sandown last month.

If he is to prevail, King Of Comedy will have to behave himself better in the preliminaries as he had to be led to post at Sandown after refusing to leave the walkway on to the track.

Gosden said: "Too Darn Hot and King Of Comedy are pointing at the St James's Palace Stakes and both have been pleasing in their work on the Al Bahathri. It looks a tough race."

As there was 35mm of rain on Monday and into Tuesday in Newmarket, the closed signs were up on the famous Limekilns on Tuesday morning, which will hinder Royal Ascot preparations this week, but Gosden was ahead of the game.

He added: "As we knew the rain was coming we got Stradivarius out on the Limekilns round gallop on Monday morning where he went nicely on good ground. That'll have put him right for Ascot and he'll just tick over from now until Thursday week."

Get exclusive insight from the track and live tipping with Raceday Live - our up-to-the-minute service on racingpost.com and the Racing Post mobile app