16:25 Royal Ascot: Stubbs can leave punters in black in Coventry

Favourites have an outstanding record in the Coventry Stakes with victories in seven of the last 11 renewals and this has to be considered good news for supporters of Stubbs at 5/2.

The two-year-old is considered one of the smartest juveniles around despite the fact that his victory last time at Naas was not in the most taxing of contests.

However, it must have impressed the analysts at the Racing Post, who decided the performance was worthy of an upgrade in Racing Post Rating from 103 to 116.

Not only does this make him the highest rated horse in the field, but only one of two horses rated above 105, which is the mark of the lowest rated winner of this dating back to 2002.

Using this statistic alone would narrow the field to just Aidan O’Brien’s charge and Epsom winner Thunder Strike (8/1), although the defection of Richard Hughes to Championship may be a reason to oppose the latter.

This would suggest that Championship (5/1) is the most fancied of the trio of entrants from Richard Hannon, but even though he is entitled to come on for the victory on his only start, the form of the Newbury maiden has not worked out terribly well.

Hannon has won this with two very smart sorts in the last four years though with Canford Cliffs and Strong Suit.

Riverboat Springs is very interesting each-way at 8/1, as he finished like a cheetah closing in on its prey at Epsom when coming from an absolute hopeless position to almost catch Thunder Strike.

If taking to the conditions at Ascot better than Epsom, he must go close.

O’Brien’s other pair aside from the favourite are also worthy of a mention, as Sir John Hawkins (4/1) performed like a potential good thing for the 2000 Guineas next year with his sole victory at the Curragh, while this drop to 6f is unlikely to inconvenience War Command (12/1).

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.