Can Scenic Blast take a Stand?

This year at England’s Royal Ascot is Takeover Target’s fourth, but for the first time viewers of TVN and Sky Racing will have to wait until the final meeting of the five-day carnival, Saturday, to see the old warrior – he will run only in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes (1200m) rather than start off in tomorrow’s Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes (1000m), the race he won in 2006.

Australia will have a King’s Stand runner, Scenic Blast, who is more than a Takeover Target substitute – around the 7-2 mark, he is challenging local three-year-old Amour Propre (3-1) for favouritism, just ahead of another English horse, Fleeting Spirit (4-1).

Considering that Australians Choisir (2003) and Miss Andretti (2007) also won the King’s Stand, and that Scenic Blast is regarded as Australia’s best sprinter this season after winning the Group 1 Lightning Stakes (1000m) and the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap (1200m) up the Flemington straight in the autumn, the short odds are justified. Steven Arnold, who rode him at Flemington, has the mount.

Reports are that Scenic Blast (B/br g 4, Scenic (IRE)-Daughter’s Charm, by Delgado (USA)) travelled comfortably and has settled in well alongside Takeover Target at Newmarket, and they add to the reasons Perth trainer Dan Morton expects his horse to run well.

“I would like to think we have Scenic Blast somewhere near his best form,” Morton said.

The one hiccup was drawing the widest barrier (15), but he is a “get back” horse and should not be too disadvantaged. And he is a straight track specialist, at least down the flat straight at Flemington. Amour Propre will jump from six, Fleeting Spirit from one.

The track is rated good to firm for Tuesday, with a fine day forecast.

Also stabled with Scenic Blast and Takeover Target (9yo b g Celtic Swing (GB)-Shady Stream, by Archregent (CAN)) at Abingdon Place in Newmarket is Golden Jubilee favourite, South African JJ The Jet Plane (B g 2004, Jet Master (SAF)-Majestic Guest (SAF), by Northern Guest (USA)) – at 4-1 he heads early markets from Scenic Blast (from 6-1 to 10-1 with UK bookies), although the West Australian is unlikely to run. Morton has indicated he will save him for the Group 1 July Cup (1200m) at Newmarket on July 10.

Royal Ascot has seven Group 1 races on its five-day, 30-race card. The main staying race, the Group 1 Gold Cup over 4000m on Thursday, will see the Aidan O’Brien-trained Yeats (B h 2001, Sadler’s Wells (USA)-Lyndonville (IRE), by Top Ville (IRE)) try to win the race for the fourth year straight. Australians will remember him for his struggling and distant seventh in the 2006 Melbourne Cup won by Delta Blues.

Geordieland (Gr h 2001, Johann Quatz (FR)-Aerdee (FR), Highest Honor (FR)) was 18^th in the same Cup and has been second to Yeats in the past two Ascot marathons. Yeats is favourite at 9-4, Geordieland and Patkai (Ch h 4, Indian Ridge (GB)-Olympienne (IRE), by Sadler’s Wells (USA)) are at 3-1.

The races will be shown late at night on the Australian pay TV channels. The program, starting with the Queen Anne, the race Australia’s Haradasun won last year under the care of Coolmore’s O’Brien, is (Eastern Standard Times):

TUESDAY-WEDNESDAY

23:30 Queen Anne Stakes (G1) 1600m

0:05 King’s Stand Stakes (G1) 1000m

0:45 St James’s Palace Stakes (G1) 1600m

1:20 Coventry Stakes (G2) 1200m

1:55 Ascot Stakes 4000m

2:30 Windsor Castle Stakes 1000m

WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY

23:30 Jersey Stakes (G3) 1400m

0:05 Windsor Forest Stakes (G2) 1600m

0:45 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (G1) 2000m

1:20 Royal Hunt Cup 1600m

1:55 Queen Mary Stakes (G2) 1000m

2:30 Sandringham Stakes 1600m

THURSDAY-FRIDAY

23:30 Norfolk Stakes (G2) 1000m

0:05 Ribblesdale Stakes (G2) 2400m

0:45 Gold Cup (G1) 4000m

1:20 Britannia Stakes (G2) 1600m

1:55 Hampton Court Stakes 2000m

2:30 King George V Stakes 2400m

FRIDAY-SATURDAY

23:30 Albany Stakes (G3) 1200m

0:05 King Edward VII Stakes (G2) 2400m

0:45 Coronation Stakes (G1) 1600m

1:20 Wolferton Rated Stakes 2000m

1:55 Queen’s Vase (G3) 3200m

2:30 Buckingham Palace Stakes 1400m

SATURDAY-SUNDAY

23:30 Chesham Stakes 1400m

0:05 Hardwicke Stakes (G2) 2400m

0:45 Golden Jubilee Stakes (G1) 1200m

1:25 Wokingham Stakes 1200m

2:00 Duke Of Edingburgh Stakes 2400m

2:35 Queen Alexandra Stakes 4200m

(Fields and form available at racingpost.com, one of the world’s great racing websites.)