G1 St James's Palace S. and G1 Prix Jacques le Marois victor Palace Pier (GB) (Kingman {GB}) will bid to keep his unbeaten record intact in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. on Champions Day at Ascot on Oct. 17.
Trainer John Gosden, who will be bidding for a fifth win in the race, said, “Palace Pier will go straight to Ascot for the Queen Elizabeth II S. He took his race at Deauville [the Marois] well, and he's been in good order since. I don't think the ground there was ideal for him, but he coped with it.”
Palace Pier is among 39 entries for the QEII, and those also include G1 2000 Guineas winner Kameko (Kitten's Joy), G1 Irish 2000 Guineas winner Siskin (First Defence), champion 2-year-old and G1 Prix Jean Prat scorer Pinatubo (Ire) (Shamardal) and dual Royal Ascot winner Circus Maximus (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}).
Trainer Ger Lyons said of Siskin, “He's been in good order since he was third to the best older miler Mohaather in the [G1] Sussex S. at Goodwood, and he has options in the [G1] Prix de la Foret in France, the [G2] Boomerang on Irish Champions Day and of course the QEII.”
Trainer Charlie Appleby said he still has some sorting out to do among his sprinter/milers Pinatubo and Space Blues (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), the latter of which is targetting the G1 Qipco British Champions Sprint on Champions Day and could possibly take in the Foret.
“Pinatubo will step back up to a mile again in the [Prix du] Moulin [on Sept. 6], and if he doesn't happen to win and we feel he's definitely not seeing that mile out, then he will be dropping back to seven furlongs in the Foret,” Appleby said. “Then we would have to decide if we wanted to run both him and Space Blues in the same race.”
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