Palace Pier included in star-studded QEII Stakes line-up

The Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (sponsored by QIPCO) could deliver a fascinating clash between established stars like Palace Pier, last year’s winner The Revenant, this year’s Coronation Stakes and Qatar Sussex Stakes winner Alcohol Free and the rising star of the miling division Baaeed. The latter was promoted to favouritism for the race in some lists after taking his record to four wins from four starts with another stylish success in last week’s Group 3 Bonhams Thoroughbred Stakes at Goodwood. Save up to £20 on Queen Anne Tickets here

The second race on the card worth in excess of £1m, and thus the richest mile race in Europe, has attracted a total of 31 entries, including the QIPCO 2000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes winner Poetic Flare, fellow Classic winners Love, Mother Earth, Empress Josephine and St Mark’s Basilica, plus a host of other classy milers such as Lady Bowthorpe, Tattersalls Falmouth Stakes winner Snow Lantern and Master Of The Seas, who has been absent since his QIPCO 2000 Guineas second. 

On the face of it Baaeed faces a tough task, but the three-year-old has made rapid strides since starting his racecourse career only in June and looks well worth his place in the field. While he has more immediate targets first, William Haggas confirmed the race could well be on his agenda.

Haggas, who has pointed to Longchamp’s Prix Du Moulin as Baaeed’s likeliest next step, said: “He’ll be dining at the top table from now on, and I think we’ll stick at a mile. He’s earned a QEII entry, and it’s encouraging that he showed at Goodwood that he could handle some give in the ground, as I wasn’t sure that he would. 

“He keeps doing it, and people say he keeps running good times. He’s just a good horse I think, and at the moment everything is going his way. He’s sound, he’s healthy and he’s fast.”

Palace Pier met the only defeat of his career so far when third behind The Revenant last year, since when his three wins include the Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes and Royal Ascot’s Queen Anne Stakes, both at Group 1 level. 

John Gosden, who now shares his training licence with son Thady, said: “Palace Pier had a blood disorder right after the Queen Anne and had to miss the Sussex Stakes, but all being well he’ll be in the Jacques Le Marois at Deauville and then we’ll take it forward from there.

“The QEII is a definite possibility again, but he’s also entered for the Champion Stakes and it would be interesting to see him at a mile and a quarter. It’s still a long way off, so we’ll see.”

The Revenant, second in 2019, beat outsider Roseman a head last year and has had the race as his target again all year. Trainer Francis Graffard confirmed: “The QEII is his main goal. We know he acts really well on soft ground and last year that was an advantage to him.”

He added: “He is back in training after a summer break and is probably more of an autumn horse than a spring horse. In the spring he always carried a penalty as a Group 1 winner and didn’t get his ground. If he is ready he can run in the Prix Quincey at the end of August at Deauville. Hopefully he will be at the same level of form as last year.”

Aidan O’Brien last won the race with the filly Minding in 2016 and has included Santa Barbara among this year’s entries as well as QIPCO 1000 Guineas winner Mother Earth, who won the Prix Rothschild in Deauville on Tuesday afternoon after finishing second to Snow Lantern in the Tattersalls Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket and third behind Alcohol Free in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot.

“Mother Earth runs in the Prix Rothschild and she has an entry in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes,” O’Brien said. “That will be the race we will be looking at for her. The Falmouth was a very slowly run race and it didn’t really suit her. She likes a nice pace. I think she has met Alcohol Free three times and she has beaten her twice in the good ground with the other filly winning at Ascot in the soft ground.”

Saeed Bin Suroor, a five-time winner of the race before the inaugural QIPCO British Champions Day in 2011, has a possible dark horse for the race in the lightly-raced Real World, who ran away with the Hunt Cup over the course and distance in June and has since won a Listed race.

Bin Suroor, who also has Real World entered in the QIPCO Champion Stakes, said: “Real World could well run on Champions Day. He’s nice and he’s ready for a Group 1, but first he’s going to run in the Rose Of Lancaster at Haydock. He’s a big, strong horse and he’s looked good this year.”

Full Entries

Al Suhail (GB) Benbatl (GB) Brentford Hope (GB) Century Dream (IRE) Lope Y Fernandez (IRE) Lord Glitters (FR) Njord (IRE) Order of Australia (IRE) Palace Pier (GB) Real World (IRE) Sir Busker (IRE) Stormy Antarctic (GB) The Revenant (GB) Tilsit (USA) Alpine Star (IRE) Baaeed (GB) Battleground (USA) Champers Elysees (IRE) El Drama (IRE) Lady Bowthorpe (GB) Master of The Seas (IRE) Poetic Flare (IRE) St Mark’s Basilica (FR) Alcohol Free (IRE) Create Belief (IRE) Empress Josephine (IRE) Joan of Arc (IRE) Mother Earth (IRE) Primo Bacio (IRE) Santa Barbara (IRE) Snow Lantern (GB)