Key events
Queen’s Hat Stakes (2pm)
1st Blue 7-1
Here’s your pre-first race update on the non-runners:
Billy the Kid is back … after young Mr Loughnane’s 80-1 success aboard Rashabar on Tuesday.
Greg Wood
Queen Mary Stakes (2.30pm) preview
A race that is all about potential, with two-thirds of the field having seen a track no more than once or twice so far, and like the Coventry here on Tuesday – in which the eventual first three home were priced at 80-1, 40-1 and 50-1 – it has the feel of a race where anything could happen. Make Haste, Truly Enchanting and Leovanni are all possible favourites, following debut wins at Naas, Tipperary and Nottingham respectively. Make Haste has fared a little better than her main market rivals in the draw, but personally I’d rather take a chance on Wesley Ward’s Ultima Grace at around 12-1. She is bidding to become Ward’s fifth winner of this race and has a predictably similar profile to the other four, having bolted up on debut at Keeneland in April.
SELECTION: ULTIMA GRACE
Market movers update
Despite drifting in the betting in the last two hours, Auguste Rodin remains the best- backed horse on Oddschecker in the Prince of Wales.
Last 4 hours of data and % of bets placed:
Auguste Rodin 33%
Inspiral 25%
Alfaila 14%
Horizon Dore 9%
Blue Rose Cen 7%
Lord North 6%
Perhaps a bit more interestingly, in the first race, Kassaya (2.30) has been the best backed horse on oddschecker with 21% of bets so far today. Her odds have shortened from 12/1 into 7/1.
Queen’s Hat Stakes (2pm) preview
There was always a lively betting market on the colour of the Queen’s hat when Queen Elizabeth II was attending the meeting and there are odds available from Ladbrokes on what colour tifter Queen Camilla will be sporting. While we have the smart people at BestofBets.com with their form guide: “Yesterday saw the Queen wearing a beautiful blue hat but with neutral colours being a favourite of Queen Camilla, the bookies have cut the odds on Her Majesty wearing a cream/white hat to 7/2. However, last year, the Queen didn’t hesitate wearing the same colours more than once, and with blue being one of the late Queen’s favourite Royal Ascot colours, it couldn’t be a shock should she wear it again.”
Ladbrokes betting:
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Cream/White 7/2
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Pink/Peach 4/1
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Yellow 5/1
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Green 6/1
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Blue/Navy 7/1
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Orange 8/1
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Red 8/1
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Purple 10/1
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Gold 12/1
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Silver 14/1
They have had quite a few go’s in the carriages to be fair
Great to see that Lord Lloyd Webber and Lady Lloyd Webber will be in the second carriage of the Royal Procession today.
I was only wondering yesterday when it would be their turn again.
— Jose (@josew1993) June 19, 2024
Market movers
We have the second of our regular daily market movers bulletin in courtesy of the folks at Oddschecker. These are the horses being supported (and one not) in the betting on Wednesday:
3:05 Queen’s Vase
The perceived O’Brien third-string has been nibbled at in the betting, with most firms trimming The Equator from 14/1 in to a general 11/1.
4.25 Prince Of Wales Stakes
The best backed horse this morning is Blue Rose Cen, one bookmaker is holding 10/1 at time of writing, but the majority go a general 17/2, from a top price of 12/1 first thing this morning. The favourite Auguste Rodin remains solid at 7/4 top price.
5.40 Kensington Palace Stakes
The regally-bred Doha is the one for money so far today, with one bookmaker going 13/2 from 10/1 .. and many others starting to follow suit.
6.15 Windsor Castle
One big drifter today is Celtic Chieftain, who was as short as 4/1 with Paddy Power first thing today, but now as big as 9/1.
Royal Procession (2pm)
The runners are in for the first event, the one that the bulk of the crowd are perhaps more captivated by than the actual races. And the confirmation is in that the King will be missing from the track on Wednesday. The big news for royal watchers is that the Prince of Wales is there … to see the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes! The trainer Mark Prescott, who I imagine will be great company at the lunch before the carriages make their way down the track, is in carriage three. He had a winner on Tuesday.
1st Carriage
The Queen
The Prince of Wales
The Earl of Halifax
The Countess of Halifax
2nd Carriage
The Duke of Gloucester
The Duchess of Gloucester
The Lord Lloyd Webber
The Lady Lloyd Webber
3rd Carriage
Princess Eugenie
Mr. Jack Brooksbank
The Lady Sarah Keswick
Sir Mark Prescott Bt.
4th Carriage
The Marchioness of Lansdowne
The Earl of Rosslyn
Baron von Westenholz
Baroness von Westenholz
It’s almost that time again … the royal procession down the track is back at about 2pm and we can expect the details of who will be in it at 12 noon.
This is also the time when I mention the Serpentine gallery exhibition by artist Mark Wallinger I saw back in 1994 when one of his installations, called ‘Royal Ascot’, consisted of a series of video monitors on top of wheeled flight cases, each isolating the royal carriage’s leisurely progress down the track on the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (respectively, as it was then) of the meeting with the added TV commentary.
The point Wallinger was making is that the difference from day to day was barely discernible. The only major difference now is that we have a new monarch, King Charles III, though according to the Telegraph yesterday he’s only going four days this week and is due to miss out today. If that’s correct we’ll soon find out at midday.
Here’s your line-up for today’s sport, courtesy of a classy Ascot tweet, er X, oh you know what I mean:
Here are the horses you can cross off today as they aren’t turning up
Royal Ascot non-runners
2.30pm Queen Mary Stakes (Group 2)
8 Glorious Kitty (going)
3.05pm Queen’s Vase (Group 2)
2 Grosvenor Square (going)
5.05pm Royal Hunt Cup (Heritage Handicap)
19 Silent Film (vet’s cert – respiratory infection)
The going for day two, as outlined in Greg’s preamble, is still Good to Firm.
We’ll be posting the going stick readings every day here at this time but it could be a waste of time given the weather forecast seems to be set fair. At present there still doesn’t seem to be any great advantage on eiother side of the straight track.
GoingStick readings at 8am:
Stands’ side: 8.2
Centre: 7.9
Far side: 8.1
Preamble
Greg Wood
Good morning from Ascot on day two of this year’s royal meeting, when Auguste Rodin, last year’s Derby winner, will be among the star turns as he takes on the mare Inspiral – already the winner of six Group One events – in the feature event, the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes.
Wednesday’s card generally pulls in the lowest crowd of the week, which mainly goes to show that the actual quality of the horses and the racing is not the only consideration for spectators, or even, in some cases, a consideration at all. If you were trying to pick the “best” race of the meeting in terms of the ratings of the horses involved in advance, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes would probably be the percentage call, so perhaps it just feels like less of a day out if you still have two days of work left in the week.
Auguste Rodin is a fascinating favourite for a race like this – he’s currently around 7-4 – because he has a habit of running the occasional, inexplicably bad race. He did it in the King George here last summer and in the Sheema Classic in Dubai in March, but in between, notched up wins in the Irish Champion Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Turf. Inspiral, meanwhile, may be operating at the limit of her stamina, as her win at last year’s Breeders’ Cup was over a much easier 10 furlongs than Ascot’s, and anyone who thinks the market leaders are both vulnerable has plenty of each-way options to pick from.
The early report from the track regarding the weather and going is that there is nothing much to report, which is generally good news for punters. The going remains good-to-firm, 4mm of water went onto the course overnight to maintain the ground, and the forecast is for another dry day.
The big race is off at 4.25pm, and the card is under way with the Queen Mary Stakes, a five-furlong dash for two-year-old fillies, at 2.30pm. Some picks for the seven races are here, and you can, as always, follow all the action as it happens here on the blog, all the way through to the last race, the Windsor Castle Stakes, at 6.15pm.