'It's tough for these three-year-old sprinters' - can Beautiful Diamond sparkle in Palace House?

In the 15 years since Amour Propre became the most recent three-year-old to win the Palace House Stakes, only 11 have tried to emulate him. That is a surprisingly low number. You might expect more young sprinters to be pitched against older sprinters while the weight-for-age remains so generous.

You would not be alone in that expectation. Three-year-olds are put in shorter than average for the Palace House. From the 11 runners since 2010, give every runner an equal chance and you would have expected 0.8 three-year-old winners, with 2.5 placed. Using their starting prices, the expectation goes up to 1.3 winners and 3.6 placed.

Two of this year's eight runners are three. The focus will be on Beautiful Diamond. She kept good company as a juvenile, finishing third in the Queen Mary and fifth in the Lowther. She remains with quite a bit to find on form, and has already missed one or two early targets mentioned by Karl Burke in recent stable tours.

Beautiful Diamond is one of only two in the field without a run this season. The best form this year so far, and the best form generally, belongs to Mitbaahy. He has joined Charlie Hills this season, who has plenty of history in guiding older sprinters who are not quite at Group 1 level.

He made a positive start for the stable when fourth in the Abernant here two weeks ago and neither five furlongs, nor soft ground if the rain comes, will be of any concern.

There are also two handicap graduates in the field. Significantly has loads of soft-ground form; he was second in the Portland and won the Ayr Gold Cup. He also shaped very much as though his reappearance at this track would bring him on.

The other ex-handicapper, who also ran at the Craven meeting, is speedball Tees Spirit. He may be one of the lower achievers on form, but these Group sprinters may look to him to set the early fractions, such is his pace. 

He could take them along until deep into the race, although he would have been seen as more of a threat had the rain stayed away.
Race analysis by Keith Melrose

Candy: Twilight Calls in very good form

Henry Candy is hoping the forecast localised downpours fail to materialise as Twilight Calls needs fast ground.

Sent off 11-4 favourite for this race 12 months ago, the gelding failed to handle the soft going and could finish only ninth of 14 behind Vadream, who relished conditions.

“He’s in very good form and should run a good race,” Candy said. “The only problem is that all of mine have been needing the run because it’s been so horrible here throughout the winter. We’re very high up and it’s been so wet and cold. Let’s hope it doesn’t rain again.”

What they say

Clive Cox, trainer of Kerdos
He had a bit of an outing at Bath on what was atrocious ground and he's benefited from that first run. He's done very well physically and has given us a good vibe over the last couple of weeks.

Charlie Hills, trainer of Mitbaahy
I was really pleased with his first run for us. He stayed on well up the hill to finish fourth in the Abernant. I think he’s sharp enough for the stiff five furlongs at Newmarket. It’s not the strongest Palace House, and he has a nice chance.

Steve Brown, assistant to Julie Camacho, trainer of Significantly
We don't think this is the strongest running, so we're rolling the dice. I think he's got a chance to run a nice race, but it'll be boosted if they get rain. He was a star last year and deserves a crack at a prize like this.

Tees Spirit (left): won at the track last monthCredit: Edward Whitaker

Adrian Nicholls, trainer of Tees Spirit
He goes into the race in top form, but we’re on weather-watch. I hope it stays dry. We had him in at Goodwood, but the ground went heavy down there. He has won a Listed race and Mia [Nicholls] gets a tune out of him.

Charlie Fellowes, trainer of Vadream
She’s in good order. I was very happy with her run at Bath. She always takes a run or two to get fully fit, and the ground possibly wasn’t soft enough for her that day. The forecast is for localised heavy downpours. If one of those happens to hit, then she becomes very interesting. She won the race last year and we’re obviously very keen to run if possible.

George Scott, trainer of Seven Questions
We’re trying to work out what races to go for in the future. We’re dropping back to five furlongs, and this race should give us plenty of clarity about whether that trip suits and if he’s a stakes horse or a handicapper.

Karl Burke, trainer of Beautiful Diamond
It's tough for these three-year-old sprinters, never mind filly sprinters, at this time of year. I think she's a five-furlong filly rather than six, and I just want to get a run under her belt to see where we go for the rest of the season. She's a Listed winner and she's ready to go, so we're trying to get some Group black type.
Reporting by Richard Birch

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