Champions Day: four key runners in the Balmoral Handicap

Trainer: Raphael E Freire. Weight: 8st 13lb. Odds: 66-1. 

Shelir (80-1) won the Balmoral two years ago, while The Gatekeeper (25-1) and Ropey Guest (40-1) fought out the finish 12 months ago, so it can pay to look beyond the obvious. 

Mr Professor is a massive price, but he looks like getting the testing conditions that serve him so well and it was only a couple of runs ago that he ploughed through heavy ground to win the Lincoln. 

He’s been unable to replicate that form in his two subsequent starts but you can put a line through his latest effort in the Buckingham Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, as the trip (7f) was short of his best and the fast ground was clearly no use to him. 

Mr Professor has been absent four months, which means that, like at Doncaster, he will be fresh. Moreover, he’s also changed yards, which may have also had a galvanising effect. 

He’s only 5lb higher than at Doncaster and Saturday will mark the third anniversary of his defeat of Westover, the future Irish Derby winner and Arc runner-up, on level weights on soft ground at Pontefract. Oh, and like three of the winners since 2015, he will jump from stall 4.

Trainer: Marco Botti. Weight: 9st 3lb. Odds: 14-1. 

This four-year-old has been a model of consistency over the past 13 months and there’s no reason to think he won’t give it another good go. 

He put up another personal best when landing a ten-furlong handicap at Doncaster's St Leger meeting last month, when he edged out Liberty Lane by a neck. The runner-up boosted the form when an emphatic winner of the Cambridgeshire next time. 

Before his win on Town Moor, Daysofourlives had suffered two near-misses at Newmarket plus been fourth in the Royal Hunt Cup, when first home on his part of the track. That was not the first time he had run well at Ascot, either. 

Daysofourlives has got to cope with a career-high mark of 101, but he’s only 4lb higher than at Doncaster and, with stamina sure to be a factor on Saturday, I like the fact he is proven over further. 

He handled soft ground well enough when encountering it as a two-year-old (Timeform assessed the going as heavy that day) and his pedigree also points to testing ground not being an issue. 

Trainer: Karl Burke. Weight: 8st 13lb. Odds: 8-1. 

There have been plenty of fancied three-year-olds in the Balmoral, but only one of their 30 challengers has hit the target. 

That’s an obvious hurdle for Thunder Run to overcome but he’s a big, strong colt who has already shown he can mix it with older rivals, as he made all in the competitive Clipper Handicap for the race sponsors at York in August despite still looking a little rough around the edges. 

I’d imagine that race had been ringed in his calendar for some time, but he’s since had two months off and so it’s not as if this race is an afterthought. The York form is solid, with his stablemate Holloway Boy (third) since winning in pattern company and James McHenry (fourth) finishing runner-up in the Cambridgeshire. 

A 4lb rise for that York run looks the least he could have expected and, having had only five runs, there could be plenty more to come. Testing ground would be an unknown, but it was on the soft side when he lost his maiden tag at Thirsk in early July and he’s a son of Night Of Thunder, whose progeny generally handle slow conditions. 

Ryan Moore has been snapped up for the ride.

Trainer: Karl Burke. Weight: 9st 12lb. Odds: 20-1. 

Holloway Boy is going to have to take a deep breath to defy top weight on a testing surface but he's a classy customer who cannot be ruled out.

He's used to doing the unsual, having won the Chesham on his debut at Royal Ascot in 2022.

The four-year-old has found it tough adding to that initial success, but he's been a model of consistency in top handicaps last summer before last time switching back to pattern company and winning the Superior Mile at Haydock.

This strong traveller beat Prague that day, and that horse has since bolted up in the Joel Stakes and is heading for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. 

Deep ground is no problem for the versatile Holloway Boy. Those with a good memory will recall he traded odds-on in-running in the Group One Futurity at this time two years ago, and conditions were desperate that day.

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