This is a one of the new races at Royal Ascot and as such, there’s not much for us to go on in terms of historical facts.

All three winners of the Kensington Palace were aged four, but they were also big prices and spread across the weights. This time around in fact, only five of the 25 declared runners are not aged four so there is precious little to glean from any trends.

This is however a straight mile race at Ascot on fast ground and as such, a world of data is available as regards the effects of the draw. Unless the jockeys choose to ignore it, there is a bias to being closer to the stands rail and as such high numbers are favoured.

A quick check on which horses this year have not been running up to or beyond their handicap mark and are drawn on the far side reduces our field to 19. Nothing much else helps, but we rated all 19 of those fillies with these six being the best of them: 

Main Contenders

Adelaise 

Adelaise is right near the top of the weights having won last time, in fact her key piece of form was her run in this race last year behind the re-opposing Villanova Queen.

She did not get the best of runs last year and wasn’t beaten far, but she is 11lbs worse off with the winner these days so she’ll need to have improved plenty.

Rajindri 

Tom Clover’s filly Rajindri is a confirmed seven-furlong horse but she’s been in good form. She’s run well either side of her winter break and still has more to give off this sort of weight.

Rowayeh 

Owen Burrows’ filly gets in here off 87 and we think that is far too low for her. A Shadwell runner, she has been chosen by Jim Crowley ahead of Fakhama who is actually a shorter price.

She has beaten both Rajindri and Mystic Pearl who is not on this list but is also in the race. In the case of the latter, Rowayeh was very good in giving her 4lbs and a 1¼-length beating so bearing in mind that filly is now rated 97 you can see why we think this filly is well in.

She improved to finish second in a good race on unsuitable ground, before tellingly going off favourite for a strong race at York and then meeting a setback. She needed her comeback run, is fit now, well drawn and should go well.

Summer Of Love 

Saeed Bin Suroor has an outstanding chance in the Royal Hunt Cup and again here with his filly Summer Of Love.

After winning on the all-weather at Kempton she’s hard to evaluate, but she is improving very quickly indeed and may well just pick up where she left off on turf. On the numbers at least she’s a well handicapped type. Christophe Soumillon rides.

Twirling 

Twirling runs in a form of the Tabor colours, so it’s no surprise that Ryan Moore takes the ride. The booking may be no surprise, but it remains significant as the top man is bound to get the best out of Simon and Ed Crisford’s runner.

She won last time out despite softer going rather than because of it, so we may see further improvement in these conditions.

Villanova Queen

This is last year’s winner, trained by Jessica Harrington, and she is very interesting as ordinarily you’d expect such a horse to be badly handicapped now but that’s not the case.

After some defeats, Villanova Queen is only 1lb higher than when winning last year and significantly better off with Adelaise as we mentioned.

She is in similar form to last year in our opinion, i.e. she may have been cleverly prepared for this race, so another big run seems like an obvious outcome.

Summary

Essentially, this comes down to whether we think last year’s form is good enough this time around. Villanova Queen is in a similar position to twelve months ago, but Adelaise could have got closer then and is arguably in better nick having had a nice prep.

We could argue this year’s line-up is stronger and quicker. Looking elsewhere and based heavily on potential, ROWAYEH is good value to have a bet on at small stakes. Assuming the prep has gone well, and she is here so we assume it has, she is the best handicapped filly which is the number one factor to consider.

Summer Of Love was next best on the list, followed by Twirling.