Top-miler Paco Boy is the star turn tomorrow in the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury and is likely to start an even warmer favourite for the race than he did last year.

An 11/8 chance for the Group One contest 12 months ago, Richard Hannon’s horse failed to justify his billing as he suffered his first defeat in four runs at the Berkshire track.

The ground will be very different this time and that could be to the five-year-old’s benefit. Although well suited by soft going, the theory remains that Paco Boy does not properly stay a mile when having to wade through the mud and that appeared to be his undoing in the 2009 Lockinge. There was certainly nothing wrong with his performance when he bounced back a month later to win the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot on a fast surface and conditions look certain to be similar tomorrow. Paco Boy comes here, like last year, off the back of a comfortable Sandown victory. I took him on three weeks ago, instead preferring the each-way claims of 16/1 runner-up Pressing, but there is no doubt the winner was highly impressive. That triumph means Richard Hughes’ mount is likely to go off at odds-on, but since he has not won two races back to back since August 2008, he could be a risky proposition.

With nine declared runners, each-way could be the best option and Pipedreamer fits the bill for that kind of wager.

This distance may be a little on the short side for the six-year-old, who has been bought by increasingly prominent owner Dr Marwan Koukash since the end of last season and transferred to Kevin Ryan’s stables in North Yorkshire. His form is very good for he won a Group 2 race at Longchamp last term and finished the campaign with an excellent fourth in the Champion Stakes.

Pipedreamer’s former trainer John Gosden was quoted as saying the horse “shows more speed than stamina as he gets older”, and if that is the case he is entitled to go close here.