Key events
Greg Wood
4.20pm GOLD CUP preview
Until a couple of weeks ago, this was expected to be the race in which Kyprios, the winner in 2022 and 2024 and absent due to injury in 2023, would confirm his place among the all-time staying greats with a third Gold Cup success. His sudden retirement leaves a glaring vacancy at the top of the staying division and the most interesting candidate to succeed him as the winner of Royal Ascot’s showpiece event is Francis-Henri Graffard’s gelding Candelari, in the colours of the late Aga Khan IV, whose father won this race all the way back in 1934 with the excellent Felicitation. The latest Gold Cup contender in green and red is a four-year-old who did not see a racecourse until making a successful debut on Chantilly’s all-weather track in December 2024, and arrives at Ascot with a four-from-five record that should perhaps be a perfect five. He is an impressive physical specimen who showed a fine turn of foot to win the Prix Vicomtesse Vigier at Longchamp in May.
The John & Thady Gosden-trained duo, Trawlerman and Sweet William, were second and third respectively behind Kyprios last year and have been lightly-campaigned since. Trawlerman returned to action with an impressive win in the Henry II Stakes at Sandown, while Sweet William, who went on from Ascot to win the Doncaster Cup in September, was a close third in the Yorkshire Cup last month. The likely favourite, though, is Aidan O’Brien’s Illinois, who compiled an impressive record in staying events as a three-year-old – winning the Queen’s Vase at this meeting and then finishing a close second to his stable companion, Jan Brueghel, in the St Leger. The obvious question is whether his stamina will stretch to two-and-a-half miles, as he has yet to race beyond the 15 furlongs of the Prix Chaudenay at Longchamp in October.
Prix Chaudenay, Longchamp, 5 Oct 25 (Illinois).
https://youtu.be/mE9ILMnvTWc?feature=shared
Prix Vicomtesse Vigier, Longchamp, 25 May 25, (Candelari).
https://youtu.be/WvQB1IQVP0c?feature=shared
Henry II Stakes, Sandown, 29 May 25 (Trawlerman).
https://youtu.be/-Mv0UGkaR-o?feature=shared
Gold Cup, Ascot, 20 Jun 24 (Trawlerman, Sweet William).
https://youtu.be/IIhohnrqE24?si=9MvBvSCsXHUT8-aY
Yorkshire Cup, York, 16 May 25 (Sweet William)
https://youtu.be/_R7i0of1grg?si=y7kY4k-M8DM1iz1C
St Leger, Doncaster, 14 Sep 24 (Illinois)
https://youtu.be/b1zDKckrr1c?si=YWUoAAyeT6BO8j6U
SELECTION: CANDELARI
Greg Wood
3.40pm RIBBLESDALE STAKES preview
The fancied runners in Ascot’s version of the Oaks tend to fall into one of three categories: fillies that were not quite ready for the Epsom Classic in early June, fillies that ran in Classic trials and came up short, and filles that did go to Epsom and ran down the field. The outsider Go Go Boots is the only runner in the latter category this year, probably because it is less than two weeks since the Oaks itself, and she was last home in the nine-runner field there.
Serenity Prayer, Life Is Beautiful and Caspi Star all ran in Oaks trials – the Musidora at York, the Pretty Polly at Newmarket and the Cheshire Oaks respectively – while Paddy Twomey’s Catalina Delcarpio is in the “not quite ready for Epsom” category. She did not race at two, won a maiden by four-and-a-half lengths on her belated racecourse debut in April and then looked to be a very unlucky loser in the Group Three Salsabil Stakes at Navan later in the month. Along with Serenity Prayer, who has also had just two starts, she is the runner with most potential for progress and it would be no great surprise if Twomey, who notched his first Royal Ascot winner with Carmers in yesterday’s Queen’s Vase, added another just 24 hours later.
SELECTION: CATALINA DELCARPIO
Greg Wood
3.05pm KING GEORGE V STAKES HANDICAP preview
If you are looking for a Group-class horse in a handicap at the Royal meeting, this 12-furlong contest for three-year-olds is often a good place to start. Hukum, the winner of two Group Ones later in his career including the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at this track in 2023, won off what was, in hindsight, a somewhat lenient opening mark of 90 back in 2020, while the King & Queen’s Desert Hero, successful two years ago, took a Group Three next time up and then ran third in the St Leger. And reaching a lot further back in time, I will remain baffled until my final day by the failure of Pilsudski, whose six subsequent Group One wins included the Breeders’ Cup Turf, Japan Cup, Eclipse and Irish Champion Stakes, to trouble the judge when I backed him at 10-1 off a mark of just 82 back in 1995.
Anyway, back to today’s renewal and I’m struggling to see past Ralph Beckett’s Sing Us A Song, who is top-rated by Timeform, posted the best recent timefigure of any of today’s runners too and, as a son of Camelot, looks sure to be suited by the step up to a mile-and-a-half. He has quite a wide draw in 17 but James Doyle will be alive to the dangers and has been in excellent form already this week. His main dangers according to the betting are William Haggas’s Merchant, who improved to win a competitive race at York’s Dante meeting in May, and Aidan O’Brien’s Serious Contender, drawn one from the outside in stall 21. He ran out a cosy winner of a 10-furlong handicap at Leopardstown in March but may not have as much scope for improvement at 12 furlongs as some of his rivals.
SELECTION: SING US A SONG
After yesterday with a golfer (Justin Rose) and a novelist (Robert Harris) in the royal procession as well as the drama of Ascot sending out the “wrong list” in error and sending royal correspondents into a tizz 20 minutes later when revealing the Princess of Wales was a “non-runner” today’s guests are fairly dull. Racing is represented by William Haggas and Princess Zahra Aga Khan.
Greg Wood
2.30pm NORFOLK STAKES preview
Aidan O’Brien’s Charles Darwin is the sure-fire favourite here and arrives with two wide-margin wins, at Navan and then Naas, to his name. He is top of the Timeform ratings, posted a top-notch timefigure last time and the only real question mark against his chance is that – and it might just be a quirk of the stats – O’Brien’s record in this race is distinctly ropey by his exalted standards. He has saddled just two subsequent Norfolk winners since the outstanding Johannesburg went in back in 2001, and a slew of beaten favourites includes Whistlejacket (10-11) last year, The Great War (5-6) in 2014 and Coach House (9-4) a year earlier. Backers who wade in at around 4-5 will probably have a slightly anxious eye on Karl Burke’s Naval Light, beaten one-and-a-half lengths on debut in the same race at Beverley that Burke used to prime Shareholder, last year’s Norfolk winner, ahead of Ascot. The winner there, however, was Old Is Gold, who did not do a huge amount for the form when finishing eighth as the 7-2 favourite in the final race here yesterday. French-trained challenger Afjan overcame a tricky passage to win on debut at Chantilly at the start of the month, showing a fair turn of foot in the process, while American trainer George Weaver’s Sandal’s Song adds a further international angle. Weaver saddled Crimson Advocate, a Group Two winner here yesterday, to win the Queen Mary Stakes in 2023 before her switch to the John & Thady Gosden stable.
SELECTION: CHARLES DARWIN
Here’s a guide to today’s action and Greg Wood’s invaluable guides will follow shortly …
2.30pm – Norfolk Stakes (5f)
3.05pm – King George V Stakes (Handicap) (1m 4f)
3.40pm – Ribblesdale Stakes (1m 4f)
4.20pm – Gold Cup (2m 4f)
5.00pm – Britannia Stakes (Heritage Handicap) (1m)
5.35pm – Hampton Court Stakes (1m 2f)
6.10pm – Buckingham Palace Stakes (7f)
Don’t look at these horses later in the day if you’re having a wager at the end of the card as there are the latest non-runners (along with their sick notes!)
5.00pm Britannia Stakes
19 Linwood (lame)
5.35pm Hampton Court Stakes
1 Al Shababi (not eaten up)
Clerk of the course Chris Stickels has had little to do this week other than put 5mm of water on overnight. It’s a case of going … going … gone the same again virtually today, as we warned at the beginning of the week. It’s baking and will be through to the end of the meeting on Saturday so there’s little change with the stands’ side a little bit faster and the high numbers may be favoured in the 5pm today.
So it’s Good to Firm on the straight course and Good to Firm, good in places on the round course.
GoingStick (basically the higher the number the faster the surface) at 8am:
Stands’ side: 8.9
Centre: 8.5
Far side: 8.7
Round: 7.1
Good morning. Before we get to the action on the track all the talk yesterday in the real world outside the “Ascot bubble” was about the fact that the Princess of Wales became a non-runner “at the last minute” after she was announced as part of the royal procession at 12 noon as is traditional by Ascot, only for the track to hastily send out a revised list of who was going to be in the royal carriages with Catherine not among those involved about 20 minutes later. It appears human error was the likely cause of the confusion, not a last-minute decision as it appeared to be at lunchtime yesterday with the two lists being sent out so close to each other.
The Telegraph’s royal watcher Hannah Furness states this morning that “in the hours ahead of the procession Kensington Palace confirmed that the Princess would be unable to attend” and a clue as to why that was correct was contained in the Daily Mail this morning with Royal Editor Hannah English stating “it was a case of crossed wires”. “It is understood an ‘inaccurate version of the list’ was ‘issued in error’”, she added.
Preamble
Greg Wood
Welcome to Ascot on what the track itself likes to call the third day of the Royal meeting, and everyone else knows and loves as Ladies’ Day, with the Gold Cup as the centrepiece of the action at 4.20pm (all times BST).
I must confess that I’d been racing at the Royal meeting for nigh on 40 years without realising that while courses the length and breadth of Britain have jumped on the bandwagon and branded one day each summer as their “Ladies’ Day”, Ascot has never had an official one and probably never will.
“We don’t have a Ladies’ Day, believe it or not, and we never have,” Nick Smith, the track’s director of racing and public affairs, told me last week. “It’s not in any marketing, it’s not promoted as Ladies’ Day, it’s the public that have called it Ladies’ Day.
“There’s never been a “best-dressed” competition, it’s more of an organic fashion show because that’s what the best milliners and couture houses in the world want it to be. We have a ‘Look Book’, but that’s very much to showcase modern styles which are within the dress code.”
From my perspective at least, the Look Book would have been more use than the form book in terms of finding winners over the first two days of the meeting, but I remain unbowed with more than half of the Royal meeting still in front of us and I’m very keen on the chance of up-and-coming French stayer Candelari in the Gold Cup itself. Illinois, another four-year-old, is likely to set off as favourite, while the veteran Trawlerman is also prominent in the betting.
Elsewhere on the card, one of the big Aidan O’Brien bankers of the week, Charles Darwin, is currently a shade of odds-on for the opening Norfolk Stakes at 2.30pm, Catalina Delcarpio and Serenity Prayer are vying for favouritism in the Ribblesdale Stakes at 3.40pm and a daunting field of 29 runners will thunder down the straight course in the Britannia Handicap at 5pm.
The official going at Ascot remains as it was yesterday evening, ie good-to-firm on the straight course and good-to-firm, good in places on the round and the live blog, as ever, will be your guide through all the action from first to last.
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