Princess of Wales’s Stakes could be set up for Grandeur

Jeremy Noseda has been one of the few trainers to break Sir Michael Stoute’s stranglehold on the Princess of Wales’s Stakes in recent years when his Sans Frontieres took the laurels back in 2010 and the Newmarket handler has another likely lad this year in Grandeur.

Having won the race five times in the last eight renewals, Stoute’s rival trainers will be walking that bit taller knowing the boy from Barbados won’t be saddling a runner this time around.

Mark Johnston’s Universal (7/2) will be the likely SP favourite. A very likeable sort who likes to run up with the pace, he’s always willing to battle back when headed.

He’s already beaten Wigmore Hall this summer, but with 10 races under his belt since the turn of the year he could be susceptible to a fresher runner.

Cavalryman (9/2) looks the better of the Godolphin candidates, but he’s mostly been campaigned over staying trips of late and may find a 1m4f contest on good-to-firm a bit sharp these days.

That couldn’t be said for Noseda’s four-year-old, who has never finished outside the first two in eight runs on good-to-firm going or faster, winning five times.

This will be his first run for the Newmarket trainer since spending the winter in the United States, where he campaigned for Patrick Gallagher. It was a profitable sojourn, with a brace of Group 2s and a second place in the Group 1 Hollywood Derby returned from three runs on the stateside turf.

Having bagged a Goodwood handicap under a 9st 7lb burden off a mark of 99 last summer, he’s a classy practitioner and his American exploits suggest he’s likely to have improved from three to four years old.

Typically a hold up performer, the presence of game likely front-runner Universal in the field could help the race shape up in an ideal fashion for the son of Verglas and at 8/1 it could be worth risking that he’ll have the necessary fitness for to score on his run of the year.

Despite the seven-runner field reducing each-way terms to two places, the insurance of an each-way punt could be worth taking, given Grandeur’s relationship with racing accomplice William Buick. The pair have failed to finish in the leading two just twice in eight runs together.

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