Royal Ascot

As is tradition, Royal Ascot closes with the Flat season's longest race and many of these will be into unknown territory a good way from home. The glaring concern with last year's Gold Cup runner-up Illinois is the rotten run in the Coronation Cup only two weeks ago when his battery was flat from a worryingly early stage on rain-hit ground that shouldn't have bothered him. Le Destrier will be popular for Willie Mullins who is seeking a sixth win in the race, but his stablemate COLUMBUS is no less interesting when he is marginally the superior of the two on Flat form and geared up for this in a 2m4f hurdle race at Killarney that the yard's Sober took en route to winning this last year. The Irish would appear to be sitting pretty with Chester Cup hero A Piece Of Heaven - Joseph O'Brien's sole runner from an entry of five - also among their ranks, though French Master is hugely respected in his bid to go back-to-back at this meeting.[Alistair Jones]