Taking its name from the official residence of His Majesty The King in Edinburgh, Scotland, the Palace of Holyroodhouse Stakes is a 0-105 handicap, run over five furlongs, open to three-year-olds and worth £110,000 in prize money. It is a recent addition to the Royal Ascot programme, having run for the first time in 2020, although a similar race featured at the Ascot Heath meeting, staged on the Saturday in the days when the Royal Meeting officially finished on the Friday. Royal Ascot was extended to a fifth day in 2002, in celebration of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, and that race was run twice, as the Balmoral Handicap, in 2002 and 2003, before being discontinued.
The six renewals of the Palace of Holyroodhouse Stakes since its return to the Royal Ascot programme have, rather unhelpfully, been won by six different trainers and six different jockeys. The only identifiable trend regarding connections is a negative one, with North Yorkshire trainer Richard Fahey having saddled 10 runners so far, none of which have troubled the judge.
Just one favourite has won, Art Power (2020), with the remaining five winners priced up at 5/1, 10/1 (twice), 12/1 and 18/1. Of the six winners, though, only Rhythm N Hooves (2023) finished outside the first three on his previous start and Art Power (2020), Latin Lover (2022) and Pilgrim (2024) were all last-time-out winners. All six winners so far were drawn in stall 11 or higher and four of them, including two of the last three, were drawn in stall 19 or higher. That is in keeping with the general trend of horses drawn high, on the stands side, enjoying a slight advantage in large fields on the straight course at Ascot. Five of the six winners also raced prominently, in touch with the leaders, with Rhythm N Hooves the only one to be held up.