FIRST LADY

NEWSBOY’S 1-2-3

1 LADY AURELIA 2 BATTAASH 3 KACHY

LADY AURELIA can beat market rival Battaash to rack up a hat-trick of Royal Ascot successes.

Wesley Ward’s daughter of Scat Daddy introduced herself to British racing fans with a scorching seven-length supremacy under Frankie Dettori in the Queen Mary Stakes of 2016.

And, partnered by this afternoon’s jockey, Johnny Velazquez, she returned to the royal heath to thump reigning title-holder Profitable by three lengths in this race 12 months ago.

Lady Aurelia was beaten in the Keeneland’s Listed Giant’s Causeway Stakes – the race she won before her King’s Stand Stakes triumph last year – in April.

But Ward is brimming with confidence that his stable star has improved in leaps and bounds since – and is ready to fire when it matters most.

Ascot’s five furlongs – on summer ground – sees Lady Aurelia in her best light, and the American trilogy is on the cards. Battaash

(below) is the best of the Europeans speedsters, as evidenced by his four-length humbling of Nunthorpe Stakes heroine Marsha in the Prix de l’Abbaye at Chantilly last October. Charlie Hills’ edged Washington DC out by a head in the Group 2 Temple Stakes at Haydock Kachy on his return – with Mabs Cross and in close attendance – and will be no pushover in one of the most eagerly anticipated head-to-heads of the week.