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DAVID Simcock’s Royal Ascot team will be spearheaded by the high-class sprinting duo Glass Office and Caspar Netscher.
The pair are on schedule to tackle the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes a week tomorrow.
Both horses have already won a Group 2, with ‘Caspar’ victorious last autumn at Woodbine and Glass Office delivering a 40/1 stunner in the Duke of York Stakes a month ago.
Caspar Netscher also ran that day at York, finishing a very respectable fourth, so Simcock has reasons to feel confident that his speedsters can be competitive at the Royal meeting.
The Trillium Place trainer said: “Both horses are in excellent order. They want good, fast ground and with a bit of luck they’ll run very well.
“The race fell for Glass Office at York – they went hard and stopped on him, which suited him. He has got form at Ascot – he was fifth in the Wokingham a couple of years ago. We’re hopeful of a good run but it is not going to be easy.
“I was delighted with Caspar Netscher at York and we’ve had a free run (with him) for the first time ever. All these sprints, you just hope that one falls for him. He is very capable if it does.”
Simcock also looks likely to run The Corsican at Group 1 level next week. He is in both the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and the Hardwicke Stakes, but preference is for the former.
That will see him remaining at the mile and a quarter trip over which he recently impressed when taking the Listed Festival Stakes at Goodwood.
David said: “We’ve got The Corsican in the Prince of Wales. A race like this is probably, I would imagine, coming three or four starts too early for him.
“He is a Listed winner jumping into this race. But there is only one Ascot. He either goes here or the Hardwicke. I’d like to stick at a mile and a quarter for now."
Simcock possesses an enviable team of older horses, but he also a most progressive-looking three-year-old under his care in the shape of Balios, entered in next Friday’s Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes.
He won a maiden first time up at Kempton before finishing second in Listed company at Newmarket. That race was over 10 furlongs and he is now poised to step up in distance for ‘the Ascot Derby’.
David added: “Balios is a lovely horse, who shouldn’t mind the trip. He is going to go on improving through the year.”
Royal Ascot’s handicaps have a well-founded reputation for being ruthlessly competitive – not least the Royal Hunt Cup.
The Trillium Place team are set to be represented by Halation who was second in a hot race at Newmarket’s Guineas meeting on his previous appearance.
Simcock said of the 96-rated four-year-old: “Halation ran well at Newmarket back in May and has been kept for this, as long as we get in. But it is a hard race to win.”
Related looks likely to make the cut for the Wokingham but Ray Ward will take his place in the 2m 4f Ascot Stakes on the opening day.
He shaped with promise over a much shorter trip on his seasonal bow at Newmarket and this, along with the staying handicap at Glorious Goodwood, are his two main seasonal objectives.