Canford Cliffs is pure class in Palace

CANFORD Cliffs arrived at Royal Ascot with a score to settle and left at the top of the podium in the three-year-old miling division after proving his worth in the St James’s Palace Stakes.

It is hard to believe it was exactly a year ago when Richard Hannon’s colt blew his rivals away in the Coventry Stakes and it had taken until last month’s Irish 2000 Guineas for him to register another victory.

But not only did he need to reverse placings with Makfi, Canford Cliffs’ conqueror in the English 2000, he had also finished behind his own stablemate Dick Turpin both at Newmarket – when they were second and third – and in the Greenham Stakes.