Royal Scotsman

Royal Scotsman was the horse to take out of the 2000 Guineas on Saturday. Not much went right for the Coles’ horse through the race. He was keen from flagfall, he was smartly away and he didn’t have any cover on the near side for the first furlong. He did get in behind horses after they had gone a furlong, but he was still keen, and he was probably lit up even more by the crowding just before the six furlong marker.  Still keen in behind horses at the four-furlong marker, he had to have expended a fair bit more energy than he needed to through the early part of the race, so it was to his immense credit that he picked up as well as he did at the two-furlong marker. To compound matters, the two leaders, Chaldean and Hi Royal, raced away from him on the far side from their low draws, Royal Scotsman had to do a lot of his own running down the near side, in the clear from just inside the two-furlong marker with no company. He kept on all the way to the line, and he probably wasn’t helped by the wanderings of Hi Royal in front of him close home.

Royal Scotsman has met Chaldean twice now, and he has finished behind him twice. Their first meeting was in the Dewhurst last October, when the Coles’ horse finished off his race well to go down by just a head. He was further behind Andrew Balding’s horse here, but he may be able to close the gap if and when they meet next with a smoother run through the race. He proved here that he stays a mile all right, and he could be even better on faster ground. He is not in the Irish Guineas, but the St James’s Palace Stakes looks like a legitimate target for him now. He is zero for two at Ascot, he was beaten on his racecourse debut there, but he ran a big race in the Coventry Stakes there on the straight track last June to finish third behind Bradsell and Persian Force, when he was in front fully two furlongs out, the first three nicely ahead of their rivals.
Newmarket, 6^th May 2023