Dick Whittington the cat’s whiskers in Chesham Stakes

The improving Dick Whittington looks a worthy favourite to land the spoils in today’s Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot (2.30).

The Aidan O’Brien trained colt was unlucky not to win on debut at Naas when encountering trouble in-running and failing by just a head to overhaul Cappella Sansevero.

The son of Rip Van Winkle was then given an over confident ride and too much to do when runner-up to Intense Style at the Curragh, but made no mistake last time out at Navan when beating Dandyleekie by four lengths.

Dick Whittington was ridden more positively in the latter, and after making progress to lead approaching the final furlong stayed on strongly to win going away.

That race was over 6f, and the manner in which Dick Whittington finished off the contest suggested that a step up to today’s 7f would bring about even further improvement.

If that proves to be the case, then Dick Whittington is going to be extremely tough to beat given that the form of his debut run was boosted when Cappella Sansevero ran an excellent race to finish runner-up in the much stronger Group 2 Coventry Stakes earlier in the week.

Toscanini, who finished 1 3/4 lengths behind Dick Whittington when third on debut, has since gone on to finish runner-up in a Listed contest at Naas and looks the biggest threat on form to the selection.

However, the one that needs keeping a close eye on in the betting is the unraced USA representative Cordero.

The beautifully bred son of Giant’s Causeway sports the famous dark blue colours of Coolmore Stud supermos John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith, and the booking of three-times champion jcokey Ryan Moore suggests connections mean business.

Cordero’s trainer Wesley Ward has also already tasted success at the meeting, and all of his raiders have run with great credit this week.