Royal Ascot: Top picks for the best races from all five days
Royal Ascot: Top picks for the best races from all five days
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Royal Ascot tips: Best selections for all five days
The biggest week of the Flat racing season is here and we’ve picked out our Royal Ascot tips for the top races each day.
With more than £9.5million in prize money up for grabs over 35 contests, the competition will be fierce once again at the Berkshire track.
This meeting transcends the sport due to the pomp, pageantry and high fashion, but we’re fully focused on finding the best bets for punters.
Tuesday
The Queen Anne Stakes always provides a fitting curtain raiser and Modern Games is rated the one to beat following a convincing victory for Godolphin handler Charlie Appleby in last month’s Lockinge Stakes at Newbury.
William Buick had to work hard to keep the four-year-old well placed that day, but the way he stayed on strongly to assert his authority in the final furlong suggests Ascot’s stiff mile should be right up his street.
In the opening day’s other Group One races, Australian sprinter Coolangatta may prove too sharp for Highfield Princess on fast ground over five furlongs, while Chaldean can follow up his 2000 Guineas triumph in the St James’s Palace Stakes for Frankie Dettori fans.
Wednesday
There is just one elite-level contest on day two, but it’s a cracker and Irish raider Luxembourg gets the nod in the £1million Prince of Wales’s Stakes over 10 furlongs.
Aidan O’Brien’s charge looks to have strengthened mentally and physically from three to four and there was a lot to like about the uncomplicated way in which he held off the reopposing Bay Bridge in the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh.
Thursday
The Gold Cup is always the highlight of Ladies’ Day and Emily Dickinson is fancied to give O’Brien a record-extending ninth success in the 2m 4f marathon in our Royal Ascot tips.
Last year’s victor Kyprios was ruled out through injury early on in the season, but this daughter of Dubawi looked like an able deputy when powering home by five lengths at Navan in April.
She disappointed when sent off at 2/5 for what appeared a routine assignment at Leopardstown last month, but O’Brien insisted on the At The Races website: “I’m happy to forgive that. She had to make her own running which wasn’t ideal and we didn’t want her to have a tough race, so she didn’t go fast enough to bring her stamina into it.”
Friday
Little Big Bear is a firm favourite for the Commonwealth Cup on day four but Sakheer should relish dropping back down in distance to six furlongs and is put forward as a value alternative to the market leader.
Roger Varian’s colt was an impressive winner of the Mill Reef Stakes at Newbury over this trip as a two-year-old and stepping up to a mile for the 2000 Guineas always felt like it would stretch his stamina, so he is worth another chance here.
Tahiyra was edged out by Mawj in the 1000 Guineas but is expected to gain revenge in their Coronation Stakes rematch after securing a smooth success in the Irish equivalent at the Curragh last month.
Saturday
Choisir and Black Caviar have both struck for Australia in past renewals of the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes and Artorius is taken to prove another thunder from Down Under in the last of our Royal Ascot tips.
"He is definitely stronger than last year and has come back a better horse…"
Artorius to go two better at Royal @Ascot this year?
Twice a Group One scorer in his own country, he did not enjoy the smoothest of runs when third in this six furlongs contest 12 months ago and went on to perform with credit in the July Cup at Newmarket and Deauville’s Prix Maurice de Gheest.
Co-trainer Sam Freedman believes the four-year-old has travelled better this term and said: “He is definitely stronger than last year and has come back a better horse. He was probably not going as well last year on the back of the carnivals.”
