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Entries are revealed today for four of the Group Two races at Royal Ascot 2008, the Windsor Forest Stakes, the Ribblesdale Stakes, the King Edward VII Stakes and the Hardwicke Stakes.
Photo by Racing and Sports
A total of 30 fillies and mares have been entered for the £140,000 Windsor Forest Stakes, run on Wednesday, June 18, the second day of the Royal Meeting.
Cheveley Park Stud has taken two of the first four runnings of the mile contest with Peeress in 2005 and Nannina last season. This year the stud has Heaven Sent, who finished second behind Championship Point in the Listed Wolferton Handicap at Royal Ascot last year.
Mick Channon could be represented by Majestic Roi, who beat Nannina in the Group One Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket in October, while Henry Cecil has engaged Group One scorer Passage Of Time.
A strong Irish entry of seven is headed by Aidan O'Brien's prolific Group One winner Peeping Fawn and last year's 1,000 Guineas runner-up and Coronation Stakes fourth Arch Swing, trained by John Oxx.
There are also two entries from France, Sabana Perdida, who finished third in last year's Windsor Forest Stakes, and the progressive Snow Key from the Jonathan Pease stable. Alamanni has been engaged by Italian trainer Emilio Borromeo.
South African trainer Mike de Kock is hoping that Bad Girl Runs will also line up in the Group Two contest. The six-year-old mare missed the race last season after finishing lame in the Group One Dubai Duty Free at Nad Al Sheba, but de Kock is hopeful that she will take her chance at the Royal Meeting this year.
De Kock said: "Bad Girl Runs has been entered in the Windsor Forest Stakes. She won a good race at Nad Al Sheba in March, 2007, before going wrong in the Dubai Duty Free later that month.
"We've given her a rest since then and she has been staying with Jamie Railton and is now cantering. She's a very capable mare, having won twice at Group One level in South Africa, and we are hopeful of seeing her in action at the Royal Meeting."