The five-furlong Palace of Holyrood House Stakes is another new handicap at the royal meeting and as such, we don’t take too much notice of past trends and stats.

That meant a long shift in profiling and previewing this race with no fewer than 28 young horses to attempt to rule in, rather than rule out.

We know that whichever horse wins this race will have to outdo their handicap mark by some considerable margin. That helped to pick through and add to the shortlist those who are obviously improving sharply.

In the end, these were the six horses we liked best against the field for Friday’s lucky last:

Main Contenders

Blue Storm 

Gemmy Tutty could be set for a very big day in her career as she saddles up Blue Storm, ridden by Hollie Doyle.

Based purely on the numbers this colt has a proper chance. He is a last-time-out winner, he is most definitely improving quickly which we love and he has a strong rider on board.

If there are any negatives, they’d be the fact that he has won three from nine which in the context of this race isn’t the very best record, and in conditions very different to today.

Dorney Lake

The slight drift in the betting market on this horse overnight was something very hard to explain.

Dorney Lake, a son of Royal Ascot winner Ardad, ran his sole juvenile race at Goodwood last summer before time off the track and some wind surgery.

He didn’t return until last month when winning easily at Yarmouth over six furlongs, putting up a performance that was worthy of today’s rating of 90. How much will he have improved since? We’d say quite a lot, so the fact that he came out again and won at Lingfield is a bonus.

His last success was more like a piece of work, he’s fresh and heading for Listed or Group company.

Dyrholaey 

Drawn up the near side is the hitherto unbeaten Dyrholaey. With Hambleton Racing until last week, he’s now part of the ever-growing Wathnan Racing stable and remains in the care of Archie Watson. 

One thing we can say is that this horse must be versatile as regards surface. All three wins have come on the all-weather, but one was on Polytrack, one was over six on the Tapeta at Wolverhampton and one was up the hill over five on Newcastle’s Tapeta.

We wouldn’t worry about the trip or the ground in that case and he has a big chance under James Doyle.

Jubilee Walk 

Another horse looking for a four-timer is Jubilee Walk, trained by James Ferguson.

His latest win was achieved ahead of Vantheman, see below, in a race during the Dante Festival at York which is form you’d always want to trust.

He’s up 7lbs for that win and ordinarily that wouldn’t be a problem, but this is a very competitive affair.

Shagraan 

In terms of his form and his overall profile, there is a major plus and a major negative regarding Shagraan.

On the plus side, he’s improving all the time and that’s what we need to see in this race. That fact is also not a surprise considering he went to Mick Appleby who is adept at squeezing more out of horses.

On the down side, it means that the improvement isn’t all about natural talent. In fact, he’s improving without winning which means we cannot class him as extremely well handicapped.

Vantheman 

As mentioned, Vantheman was second to Jubilee Walk in that good race at York which was a step up from his previous race, a win at Newcastle.

The one downside of that strong form is that it means the horse is more exposed. Handicappers are less forgiving in these situations and it may have been better had he raced in a wee egg and spoon race somewhere instead.

Summary

Much like with our Royal Hunt Cup tip Wild Tiger the other day, there is a horse in this race who is much the best of them at the weights and will win if nothing goes wrong on the day.

That horse is DORNEY LAKE for the same owners, Godolphin, this time in the care of trainers John & Thady Gosden.

Other than his draw in stall 2, even then arguably, there are no negatives about this horse at all and the timing of his races suggests the Gosdens have kept him fresh, well and nicely handicapped for this week.

Shagraan and Jubilee Walk should go well along with Wathnan Racing buy Dyrholaey.