YOU can argue that Highfield Princess is a little unlucky not to be going into today’s Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes as the King’s Stand Stakes winner.

It did look like she was coming with a run that was going to take her close in Tuesday’s race, as evidenced by in-running low odds of 1.53, before Bradsell moved to his left and checked her run.

Highfield Princess may not have won anyway, had she not been impeded, but she may have. We can’t know for sure.

What we do know for sure is that Bradsell got to the winning line a length in front of her and, under the rules of racing and their interpretation in Britain, it was always long odds against the result being altered.

Highfield Princess has a big chance of atoning for that defeat today, but it’s not going to be easy.

This is a better race than the King’s Stand was, and John Quinn’s superstar mare – a Buckingham Palace Stakes winner, remember, over seven furlongs – is probably better these days over five furlongs than she is over a stiff six.

Antipodean raider Artorius is back for more after finishing a close-up third behind the two Godolphin horses Naval Crown and Creative Force in the race last year, and Wellington brings an intriguing Far Eastern dimension. Remarkably, Richard Gibson’s horse has run 23 times, and all 23 runs have been at Sha Tin.

Value of the race

But Sacred could be the value of the race. William Haggas’ mare has a little bit to find on the top-rated horses in the race on official ratings, but her 3lb mare’s allowance takes her closer, and, more importantly, there are reasons for believing that she can take another step forward today.

She is a classy filly. She won the Nell Gwyn Stakes and the Hungerford Stakes as a three-year-old, and she shaped really encouragingly on her debut this season in winning the Group 3 Chartwell Stakes at Lingfield.

She was well back in the field early that day, she was seventh of the eight runners as they started to turn for home, but, taken to the outside early in the home straight by Ryan Moore, she showed an impressive turn of foot to hit the front inside the furlong marker and win impressively.

Of course, this is a significant step up in class from that, and it is a slight step down in distance. But she has the pace for six furlongs, and she deserves another shot at this race.

She was only fifth in it last year, but she was beaten a total of just a length, and she only has a neck to find with Artorius on that run.

As well as that, she was making her seasonal debut in the race last year and, while she can go well fresh, there is every chance that her Lingfield run will put her spot on for today.

She goes well at Ascot too.

On her only other run there, she finished a close-up second behind American speedball Campanelle in the Queen Mary as a juvenile, with the pair of them clear. She goes well on fast ground, and her low draw is probably a positive.

Wokingham

Like Sacred, Apollo One will bid to improve upon his finishing position in the race that he contested at last year’s Royal Meeting when he lines up in the Wokingham at five o’clock. He only finished eighth in last year’s renewal of the six-furlong handicap, but he was prominent from early, and he raced more towards the centre of the track than the horses who dominated the finish, with the winner Rohaan coming from a long way back. He only gave best on the run to the furlong marker.

His two runs this season have both been good. He finished third behind Probe in a good handicap at Newmarket’s Guineas meeting on his debut, when he was just a little tight for room a furlong out before finishing off his race well.

Then last time, in a six-furlong handicap at Epsom’s Derby meeting, he had to do a lot of running early on from his outside draw, 14 of 14, to adopt and maintain a prominent position. He got a little unbalanced at the two-furlong marker, but he finished off his race well to take second place, just a neck behind Badri.

The handicapper raised him by 3lb for that run to a mark of 100 but, because the Wokingham is an early-closing race, he gets to race off his old mark of 97. That is 1lb lower than the mark off which he raced last year.

Richard Kingscote is a good rider who gets on well with Apollo One, his record on him reads 4212, and the Equiano gelding goes well on fast ground. There are lots of positives.

Sacred, 3.40 Ascot, 7/1 (generally), 1 point win

Apollo One, 5.00 Ascot, 12/1 (generally), 1 point each-way