Cesare bids to retain Ascot crown
Cesare faces the potential twin Group One challenge of Ramonti and Archipenko if he is to retain Saturday’s Plymouth Gin Summer Mile Stakes at Ascot.
Four of the seven-year-old’s last five wins have been at the Berkshire course and while it is difficult to know whether he would have beaten Haradasun in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot last month, he suffered trouble in running before flashing home for fourth.
Godolphin’s Ramonti won the Queen Anne a year ago as well as the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at the same track in a fruitful season, but will be having his first run of the year in this Group Two event.
Archipenko, trained by Mike de Kock but formerly by Aidan O’Brien, has also scored at the highest level in April’s Audemars Piguet QE II Cup in Hong Kong.
Cesare’s trainer James Fanshawe said: “He runs on Saturday. He’s in good form and hopefully will have better luck than last time.”
There are nine others declared including Bankable, whose bid to become the shortest-priced winner of the Royal Hunt Cup was thwarted by a bad draw, the high-class Major Cadeaux and Pressing, who finished fourth to Duke Of Marmalade in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes.
