PALACE Pier sets a high standard in today’s Group 1 Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes at Newbury. Two for two at two, John and Thady Gosden’s colt was a little bit of a revelation last season, progressing from a handicap victory to win the St James’s Palace Stakes, battling on tenaciously to get the better of Pinatubo and Wichita in one of the finishes of the season. Then he went to France and beat Alpine Star and Circus Maximus and Persian King and Romanised in the Prix Jacques le Marois, before suffering the only defeat of his life when he could only finish third in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot on heavy ground.

He proved his wellbeing on his debut this season though, when he won the Group 2 Bet365 Mile at Sandown by eight lengths, and he has 8lb and more in hand of today’s rivals on official ratings.