Nahaarr to turn tables with Diamond success

LOOKING ahead to the Saturday of Royal Ascot is never easy, but it’s especially hard this year given the midweek forecast for thunderstorms, which are due to hit overnight on Wednesday into Thursday.

As we know, thunderstorms can be very hit and miss, so Ascot could get a deluge or escape scot-free.

At least we know there isn’t much rain forecast from Friday onwards, so with the straight track being particularly quick-drying I’m going to work on the basis of no worse than good or just on the easy side and hope for the best.

The final-day feature is the Diamond Jubilee Stakes and I’d been looking forward to seeing Glass Slippers step up to 6f as I think she has been crying out for a step back up to 6f, but she didn’t even make the five-day entries, so that’s a project that will have to wait.

It’s hard to argue with Ed Walker’s Starman being favourite after his win in the Duke of York Stakes last month, but it’s also hard to reconcile the difference between his price and that of Nahaarr, who was only a neck behind him.

That could well be the formline to concentrate on as the pair pulled well clear of third-placed Oxted, who has gone on to win the King’s Stand, and at the prices the bet has to be Nahaarr.

Of course, you could argue Starman has had only five runs (won four) and is therefore open to more improvement, but enough went wrong for Nahaarr at York to think he can turn the tables.

William Haggas’s Ayr Gold Cup winner f lopped from the stalls and was then keen at the back in a race seemingly run at a steady pace.

In the end he had to be switched out to have a crack at the winner and he did a lot of running just to get to Starman, and with a better trip through the race I think he’d have won.

That York effort was a clear career best and proves Nahaarr is still on the upgrade after a fine summer in handicaps last season. He was only third in the Silver Wokingham at the royal meeting last year, but arguably hit the front way too soon and he’s a much better horse now anyway.

Dream Of Dreams has finished runner-up in the last two runnings of the Dimaond Jubileee and certainly can’t be ruled out after a fine winning return at Windsor.

In some ways it would be disappointing if one of the younger guns can’t have his measure, but he obviously goes really well at this track and has to be respected.