Race to savour: big guns ready to rumble in mouthwatering Prince of Wales's Stakes

The Prince of Wales's Stakes is arguably the race of the week. It boasts four bona fide contenders, but for one in particular more is on the line.

Adayar is a Derby and King George winner, but an injury interrupted four-year-old campaign in which he only raced twice and was just touched off by Bay Bridge in the Champion Stakes did not enhance his value at stud.

He is back for another season with the goal to do just that. Adding a much-coveted Group 1 win at a mile and a quarter is objective number one and the stakes are high. His value at stud can be hurt easier than it can be enhanced, so the fact he is back at all shows a faith and conviction that there is more to come.

Adayar's trainer Charlie Appleby said: "We have been delighted with how Adayar has come forward since the Gordon Richards Stakes. It was always the plan to come straight to Ascot afterwards and he ticks all the boxes coming into the race.

"It’s a very strong renewal, but Adayar is in great shape and we are very much looking forward to it. The target this season has been to win a Group 1 over a mile and a quarter and this will hopefully be his opportunity."

Adayar's trainer Charlie Appleby: "This will hopefully be his opportunity"Credit: Edward Whitaker

O'Brien delighted with Luxembourg's condition

As is so often the case in British Group 1s, Godolphin's biggest rival comes from Coolmore in the shape of one-time Derby favourite Luxembourg. He is on more of a retrieval mission. A flop in last year's 2,000 Guineas meant he missed the Derby, and he only returned at the back end of his three-year-old campaign to win the Irish Champion Stakes before finishing a well-beaten seventh in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

The bubble, first inflated by his Beresford and Vertem Futurity Trophy wins, has not so much popped as been deflated slightly, but last month he won a third Group 1 in a third different campaign with victory over Bay Bridge in the Tattersalls Gold Cup and a stellar season at four would establish Luxembourg as a premier sire prospect.

His trainer Aidan O'Brien said: "We've been very pleased with everything he has been doing since the Curragh. He's drawn in stall one so Ryan [Moore] won't be afraid to go forward if he has to.

"He showed at the Curragh that he is happy doing that. You can put him anywhere in a race and he doesn't seem to mind. Everyone has been delighted with him at home."

Bay Bridge expected to have improved

The Sir Michael Stoute-trained Bay Bridge is the horse who ties Adayar and Luxembourg together. He was half a length in front of Adayar in the Champion Stakes that will always be remembered as the race in which Baaeed finally got beaten, but half a length behind Luxembourg at the Curragh last month.

The two runs are not fully comparable. One came when race fit as the culmination of a season's hard work, while the other was a stepping stone to the first major assignment of this campaign, and Sir Michael Stoute's assistant is confident the run has brought forward their challenger on his return to the course and distance of his most famous win.

Bay Bridge beat Adayar and My Prospero in the Champion Stakes at Ascot last OctoberCredit: Alan Crowhurst

James Savage said: "The mile and a quarter division is as strong as I have seen. He took a step forward for every run last year. He took a massive step forward from France to the Curragh, running a big race behind Luxembourg, and we expect him to improve again at Ascot. He has trained very well.

"We are still very respectful of the opposition and if Ascot gets the forecast rain that would be positive, but he showed he is effective on good ground at the Curragh."

Haggas: 'It'll come down to who gets a clear run'

Just behind Bay Bridge and Adayar in the Champion Stakes was William Haggas's second string, My Prospero. While Baaeed flopped that day, My Prospero very much announced himself as a Group 1 threat – an impression he backed up when a running-on fourth behind Modern Games in the Lockinge over an insufficient mile last month.

He has that classic Haggas profile of a horse who has been brought along in his own time and does not need to step forward much here to come out on top.

Indeed, Haggas is confident enough in his challenger and believes it will all come down the luck in running and the various rides each horse is given. He said: "He's in great form and I'm hoping he'll run really well.

"He ran well in the Lockinge and he's come forward for that, but he needed to. He ran very well in the Champion Stakes last year so he has close form with a couple of these.

"A lot will depend on how the race goes. They're all quite similar horses so it'll come down to who gets a clear run, but that's Tom's [Marquand] job not mine."

My Prospero: does not have to improve much to trouble the principalsCredit: Edward Whitaker

What they say

Kenny McPeek, trainer of Classic Causeway
He's a very one-dimensional horse. He'll go to the front and it's a short field so a lot can happen as we know. His best distance is ten furlongs and his Grade 1 win in the Belmont Derby was over that distance. We understand we're a longshot, but he's a lovely horse and it'll be a big test for him. They underestimated him in the Belmont Derby, too, and he won that, but he is a horse who needs to have his way and I'm intrigued to see how he handles the right-hand turn. I brought a horse over in 2004 called Hard Buck [for the King George]. He was the longest price on the board and came second – it's still a horserace.

Thady Gosden, joint-trainer of Mostahdaf
He's taking on some of the top-class middle-distance horses in Europe so it's a tough ask, but he's fresh and back from a break. He won the Neom Cup over this kind of trip well in Saudi Arabia in February before running respectably in the Dubai Sheema Classic over a trip which was beyond his optimum.

Read more of Wednesday's previews:

'She's improving all the time' - leading juvenile fillies clash in wide-open Queen Mary  

'Hopefully she can be seriously involved' - Joseph O'Brien teams up with Aussie ace McDonald  

A polarising favourite against a Dettori-ridden Group 1 winner - how do Jumbly and Prosperous Voyage match up?  

Ante-post gamble Perotto 'has great credentials' - but who else has been laid out for the Royal Hunt Cup?  

Can the unbeaten Gregory follow in the footsteps of Stradivarius by landing Queen's Vase for Gosdens?  

'I think he'll run a very big race' - expert analysis and trainer quotes for the Windsor Castle  

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