Ward and O'Brien double-handed in bid to win Windsor Castle for a third time

Windsor Castle Stakes (Listed) | 5f | 2yo | ITV/SKY

The switch of the Coventry Stakes to Saturday means this 5f dash is the first juvenile race of the week and the usual suspects line up, including Wesley Ward who achieved his breakthrough success in this with Strike The Tiger in 2009.

He saddles two this time around, with Frankie Dettori out to bag his first win in the contest on Sunshine City, who has been showing up well in her work since arriving in Newmarket a fortnight ago.

The daughter of Creative Cause won on her debut over 4½f on dirt at Gulfstream Park in April, although you have to go back 20 years to find the last filly to win this Listed event.

Stablemate Sheriff Bianco was second on his debut at Churchill Downs last month and has also impressed since arriving in Britain.

Aidan O'Brien, who also seeks a third win in the contest after Washington DC (2015) and Southern Hills a year ago, is double-handed with recent Navan first and third Chief Little Hawk and Hyde Park Barracks.

What they say

George Boughey, trainer of Astimegoesby
He ran very well to be third on his debut at Newmarket and has come out of that sharper both physically and mentally. He deserves to take his chance and hopefully he can run a nice race.

Clive Cox, trainer of Get In
I think that was a very good race [his debut at Newmarket]. Of the two-year-old races I would rank that pretty high up there so far. He’s a wonderful individual to deal with and has a great temperament. I’d just be a little concerned if we had too much rain.

Ben Haslam, trainer of Macho Pride
It's unusual for us to have first-time-out two-year-old winners so he should have some improvement on what he did at Newcastle. We've also declared him for the Norfolk Stakes on Friday so we'll have a look at the ground in the morning and make a call.

Mighty Gurkha: an impressive winner at Lingfield on debutCredit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)

Bruce Raymond, racing manager to Mohammed Rashid, owner of Mighty Gurkha, Hamad Rashed bin Ghedayer, owner of Stay Smart and Saaed Manana, owner of Victory Heights.
All three were expected to win on their debuts and duly did with Mighty Gurkha the most impressive of them winning by seven and a half lengths at Lingfield, Although the second that day has since been beaten he goes there with a live chance and is a very fast horse.

Oisin Murphy, rider of Sheriff Bianco
He's a big powerful type who's travelled over well and he gave me a good feel when I sat on him last Monday on the turf. You never know about the ground for this type of horse but hopefully it will dry out.

John Warren, racing manager to the Queen, owner of Tactical
Tactical showed signs of precocity at home early this spring and ran a nice race at Newmarket on debut. We obviously have no idea where he sits amongst his peers but it’s fun to have a go and to have a two-year-old runner for Her Majesty to enjoy.

Wesley Ward, trainer of Sunshine City
She won on her debut on the dirt at Gulfstream but she'll be twice as good on grass. She's impressed in her work since then and it's difficult to pick between her and Sheriff Bianco.

Aidan O'Brien, trainer of Chief Little Hawk and Hyde Park Barracks
It's a quick turnaround for both horses but we had to give a run to try and get them into the race. They have done nothing since they ran at Navan but seem to be in very good form. We like Chief Little Hawk, who won at Navan. He has a lot of speed and we're looking forward to him. Hyde Park Barracks came home nicely behind Chief Little Hawk at Navan and we were very happy with his run as well. He was working very nicely in the build-up to that race as well. We're hopeful of a good run from the two of them.

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