Our last big handicap of the week at Royal Ascot is the Golden Gates Stakes. It’s been a great week featuring some big-priced winners and we’ll be back next week for the Northumberland Plate.

The Golden Gates is a new race, run over 1¼ miles for the three-year-olds only and there could be some classy types lurking in this field. More to the point; some of them could be rated in the 90’s and could therefore be very well treated.

There’s not too much data available for this race, but in four renewals so far favourites have run very well. We also saw that having a double-figure draw around the bend seemed to be of no major impediment.

We think that the market generally gets this right in terms of the main contenders, helping to lead us to these six shortlisted horses: 

Main Contenders

Approval 

Approval only ran 12 days ago but we’ve already seen this week that a quick follow-up can work well.

In this case, Approval was following up two runner-up efforts at Wolverhampton with an easy win at Windsor in a novice race, earning a mark of 90.

It does not seem as though that mark is correct, so if the quick turnaround doesn’t affect him too much he has a leading shout.

Cambridge

Wayne Lordon takes the ride here for Aidan O’Brien, their Cambridge stepping down in class having contested the Craven Stakes and the Dante Stakes this spring. He wasn’t good enough there, but he is rated 100 now and it wouldn’t be too far from his true level.

If anything, having his sights lowered allied to that extra experience may just see him at his best. He’s progressive overall and we also note that his only win so far came on this sort of ground, meaning he may just relish conditions on the day.

Hand Of God 

William Buick and Harry Charlton are a pretty smart combination and their Hand Of God certainly has a leading chance.

After learning from his first two races last summer, the son of Churchill won at Newmarket last backend before taking the Esher Cup at Sandown in April on his return.

He looked that day as though he was way ahead of the handicapper. He only won by a neck after making all, but he’s highly progressive, has only gone up 3lbs which is a gift and the third-placed horse from Sandown has since run second in the Group 2 Derby Italiano.

Old Faithful 

The other O’Brien horse on our list is Old Faithful, the choice of Ryan Moore.

His third run of last year got him to a mark of 87, with natural improvement surely taking him comfortably about 100 by about now.

What happened however is that he looked out of form when putting in a bad run last autumn and he has kept improving from then.

He ran to a mark of around 80 when beaten on heavy ground in a maiden at the Curragh in March, then he won at Naas which gave him 85. Two weeks ago, he scored again at Navan on better ground and he was raised to a mark of 89, only 2lbs higher than when he was a juvenile and still some way short of where we think he can reach. On that score, he looks well handicapped even in the context of this race.

Palace Green

Oisin Murphy is riding brilliantly and he takes the mount on this Palace Green.

A winner at Kempton in April after his gelding operation, Palace Green couldn’t do the business at York last time in a handicap but it was still an improvement and he may appreciate this step back down to 1m2f.

Portsmouth 

A lot of money may come for this horse from one part of the country, but Portsmouth is indeed on this list on his own merits.

Trained by Andrew Balding, this son of Gleneagles was gelded after three underwhelming juvenile runs. He has flourished this season, winning first time up and going close since at both Goodwood and Epsom. If he handles this fast ground then he’s bang up there.

Summary

After winning the Esher Cup is seemed pretty obvious that HAND OF GOD was going places in the game. He can prove that by taking a Royal Ascot win here.

William Buick shouldn’t have any problems getting this horse into a good position and the pair have enough at the weights to be able to pounce at the right time.

Old Faithful has to be better than his mark you’d think, while Approval should also make his presence felt.