Sixties Song set to be first Argentine-trained runner at the meeting

Sixties Song will add a further international dimension to Royal Ascot in June when he becomes the first horse trained in Argentina to run at the meeting.

Having already claimed victory in his own country's biggest all-aged prize, the Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrin last December, the son of Sixties Icon ran away from the best middle-distance horses in South America in landing the Longines Gran Premio Latinoamericano in Chile on Sunday.

Under a scheme run by Ascot and the Latin American Racing Channel, Sixties Song is now eligible for funding and an invitation to run at the royal meeting and subsequently the Qipco-sponsored King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

"The owners had told us last week that it was very much the plan to come to Ascot if everything worked out in the race on Sunday," said Ascot's director of racing and communications, Nick Smith.

"We are always looking for 115 plus rated horses and his performance on Sunday can only have enhanced that. The provisional plan would be to prep in the Hardwicke Stakes and then have the King George as a main target. Connections are now working on a plan with the International Racing Bureau and the BHA to get the travel and quarantine under way in the early part of April."

Smith will be keeping a keen eye on Saturday's Group 1 Newmarket Handicap at Flemington, for which Ascot contender Spieth is favourite.

Smith said: "Spieth is Royal Ascot-bound if things work out on Saturday and then subsequently. At this early stage it is nice to have people talking about the possibility of coming."