Anchorage Looks to Improve for O'Brien in Queen's Vase

The proposal to tweak the conditions of the Queen's Vase (G2) in 2017 was met with some disapproval, but those alterations have enhanced the race's stature and importance in the calendar. This is the best mile and six-furlong 3-year-old race in Britain aside from the St. Leger (G1).

The last five winners' average Racing Post Rating of 109 is six pounds superior to that of the previous five since this switched from a listed race over two miles to a shorter group 2. In Stradivarius  and Kew Gardens , the Queen's Vase recently unearthed two future stars.

Aidan O'Brien captured half of the last 10 runnings, and this is the first time since 2014 the trainer has saddled only one runner.

Anchorage  shares similarities with three of those five winners in that he is a son of superstar sire Galileo. A mile and a quarter looked too sharp on his return in the May 20 Heider Family Stables Gallinule Stakes (G3), where he finished fifth, and improvement can be expected.

"We were happy with how he fared in the Gallinule, it was his first run of the year and we knew he would come on for it," O'Brien said. "We always thought he wanted further and he gets his chance to run over a longer trip here. We do think he'll appreciate it, and he seems to be in very good form."

Nahanni  is the only one who ran June 4 in the Cazoo Derby (G1), finishing seventh, and represents last year's winning trainer, Charlie Appleby. 

Adam Kirby was convinced the fireworks display at Epsom was to blame for Nahanni's sluggish start, stressing that they "wound him up," and he found himself trailing the entire field after a furlong of the race. 

With that in mind, Nahanni arguably did well to get within 11 1/2 lengths of Desert Crown, and Appleby felt he was one of the few in the Derby to finish out his race. His trainer thinks the extra two furlongs here will suit. 

There will certainly be no fireworks to spook Nahanni ahead of the Queen's Vase, but the big poser for punters is whether 11 days has been enough time for him to recover from a poor Derby experience.

Appleby, who won the race last year with Kemari, said: "I thought Nahanni ran a good race in the Derby given the running style we unfortunately had to adopt. He was propping away in the gates when they opened, so therefore he fluffed his lines and had to accept the position he was in. He had to sit last on him.

"He was one of the few horses I thought ran through the line in the Derby. He's come out of the race surprisingly well because we thought he had a hard enough race. He's eaten up and done all the things he needs to do. Stepping up to one mile six furlongs is going to suit him."

Hafit  might be the second string according to the market, but Appleby believes the best is still to come from the son of Dubawi .

He said: "I'm looking forward to Hafit. Some would say he's been a bit frustrating, but he's a typical Dubawi and we're only going to see the best of him from now on. He's got an impeccable pedigree.

"We're applying cheekpieces because he's not the strongest of travelers and we want to get him traveling and up on the bridle to give him the best chance of being in the right position when they turn the taps on."