'We're confident he’s come forward' - can Bold Style reverse form with Boiling Point to land Listed event?

Favourites have a superb record in the William Hill King Charles II Stakes with seven of the last ten market leaders obliging in this Listed event.

Only a neck separated Boiling Point and Bold Style when they finished second and third over course and distance last month and the former currently heads the market. The winner of that conditions race, Ten Bob Tony, is running in Saturday’s 2,000 Guineas, so the form looks strong and Bold Style’s connections are confident he can reverse the form with the Roger Varian-trained runner-up.

Bold Style was beaten on his debut at Wolverhampton before winning his second start as a juvenile and his trainer Charlie Appleby expects him to come on for his last run.

“Bold Style has definitely improved since his run at the Craven meeting,” said Appleby, who won this race in 2022 with another Godolphin-owned and William Buick-ridden runner in Noble Truth.

“He’s reopposing Boiling Point, who was just in front of him last time, but we're confident he’s come forward.”

Buick knows all about turf debutante Queen Of Zafeen as Richard Hughes’s filly lost her unbeaten record under the rider when second to Watch My Tracer at Lingfield last time, although the winner of that Listed race hardly franked the form when tenth of 11 in the Greenham on his next start.

The form horse of the race is Indian Run on the strength of his Group 3 success in the Acomb Stakes at York's Ebor meeting last year. He was a length-and-a-half winner over Ballymount Boy, who then beat another of today's runners, Alaskan Gold, into second by half a length at Doncaster.

Indian Run and Danny Tudhope win the Acomb for the Bronte Collection syndicate at York on Wednesday

Indian Run: Group 3 winner makes his seasonal debutCredit: Edward Whitaker

Although Indian Run was subsequently last of eight in the Dewhurst, that was on unsuitably soft ground at the highest level.

Indian Run’s trainer Eve Johnson Houghton said: “We’re desperate to get him out but we’ve been held up by the ground. Fingers crossed it’s not going to rain. He’s been training well, but he’ll come on for the run.”

The last of the six runners, Jehangeer, is the second string for owner Jaber Abdullah, whose Queen Of Zafeen will be ridden by Ryan Moore for the first time.

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