One of Royal Ascot's headline stories, The Queen's Dartmouth (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), returns from his summer holiday in fighting form in Saturday's G3 Dubai Duty Free Legacy Cup at Newbury as he preps for Woodbine. Having beaten Highland Reel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in the G2 Hardwicke S. at the Royal meeting June 18, he was third behind that rival when held up in the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. at that venue July 23 and emerged with plenty of credit. The Queen's racing advisor John Warren said, “He's a big, strong horse and he's in very good form. The intention is for him to run. It's been a while since the King George and hopefully this will be a nice blow-out for him and a good prep race. [GI] The Canadian International is a possible target for him, if he did well on Saturday. It is obviously not ideal the ground being as it is, but there are not many options for him and hopefully it will blow away the cobwebs.”
With the increasingly-disappointing 2014 G1 Prix du Jockey-Club and G1 Irish Champion S. hero The Grey Gatsby (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) withdrawn due to the rain-afflicted going, last year's G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud hero Robin of Navan (Fr) (American Post {GB}) may offer the sternest threat to the royal runner on ground that suits. He showed enough when second in the G3 September S. over 12 furlongs on Kempton's Polytrack Sept. 3 to suggest he could be on the way back and trainer Harry Dunlop is keeping the faith, “We've been very happy with our horse since Kempton and he's tightened up nicely,” he commented. “Hopefully this will be a good opportunity for him.”
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