0.75pt each-way Mongolian Saturday @25/1, 15:40 Ascot, Tuesday

Unlike recent renewals, this season’s King’s Stand Stakes – the first of two British Group One five-furlong sprints each year – will be raced on soggy, slow ground.

That’s caused many of the leading players to defect, including dual-winner Sole Power and the much-hyped American raider Acapulco.

With each defection last season’s Nunthorpe Stakes winner Mecca’s Angel hardens as favourite and is now into 7/4.

She’s brilliant, she gets her ground and looked very well when being touched off by the re-opposing Profitable on her seasonal début at Haydock – but such prohibitive odds are rarely value in these sprints as luck in running often has a big say.

I’d be looking for an each-way play, then, and one who will also appreciate the cut in the ground.

MONGOLIAN SATURDAY won the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on dodgy ground at Keeneland last October on a card punctuated by major upsets – Derby and Arc winner Golden Horn as well as Classic heroine Legatissimo were among the European raiders turned over at skinny odds.

Mongolian Saturday was a 20/1 shock that day with last season’s Diamond Jubilee Stakes winner Undrafted well beaten – watch the race below.

He’s a big tank of a horse and certainly looks like the type to appreciate softer conditions, so with Grade 1 form in the book and widely overlooked in the betting – even despite all the defections – he looks a good each-way bet at 25/1 with Mecca’s Angel the chief threat.

0.75pt each-way Mongolian Saturday @25/1, 15:40 Ascot, Tuesday (Stan James, 1,2,3, 1/4 odds)

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