THERE will be something missing at Royal Ascot. And I don’t mean the equine legends that are Frankel and Black Caviar. The absence of Sir Henry Cecil’s elegant frame will leave the royal meeting bereft of one of racing’s most iconic figures. His widow, Lady Jane Cecil, will carry the baton for Warren Place and there is an air of inevitability that the Cecil team will appear in the winner’s enclosure at some point during the five-day meeting.

Lady Cecil is already making her mark. Three winners yesterday showed that the Warren Place team are in rude health and their best chance of a Royal Ascot winner is probably with Frankel’s half sister JOYEUSE in the Albany Stakes on Friday. She was highly impressive when winning her only race at Lingfield and it would be a fitting success as Joyeuse is owned by Prince Khalid Abdullah, Sir Henry’s staunchest supporter during the barren years of the early noughties.

FIRST MOHICAN is ultra-talented but fairly brittle. However he won well at York’s Dante meeting and is pencilled in for the Wolferton Handicap on Friday. Any rain would help his chance.

The most appropriate Cecil winner would be DISCLAIMER in the Queen’s Vase, which has been renamed in memory of Sir Henry. He is three out of three this season and this is a race that Warren Place has dominated over the years.

TIGER CLIFF looks interesting in the Ascot Stakes on Tuesday while CHIGUN should also run a big race in the Duke of Cambridge. And there is Prince Khalid’s RIPOSTE in the Ribblesdale Stakes, another race that Sir Henry harvested over the years.