3.20pm Ascot Tips & Betting Preview 23/07/2016

Three year olds only in this competitive handicap so nothing to help us there but we do know it takes a decent sort to win it with last year’s winner Portage going on to score at Royal Ascot this season. Sir Michael Stoute seems keen to win this with two high class entries and I think Frankie Dettori is on the better option of the two with the lightly raced El Hayem (8/1 Each Way) who has any amount of room for further improvement off a lenient handicap mark of just 90 today. After an educational debut when fourth to Taqdeer at Chelmsford the son of Invincible Spirit stepped up to take his maiden over this mile at Doncaster at odds of 25/1 and then finished a perfectly respectable second to Sir Roderic at Sandown. Three pounds better off with that rival for a length today, he ought to be able to turn it around on the revised terms and looks a good option this afternoon in a seriously intriguing renewal.

Earlier this season Oh This Is Us (20/1) looked on target for a handicapper of the year nomination after winning his first three at Chelmsford, Newmarket, and Goodwood, but it all went badly wrong last time out at Royal Ascot in the Britannia Stakes when Richard Hannon’s colt finished a pretty dismal eighteen of twenty-eight to Defrocked. A son of Acclamation, he may have simply failed to handle the softer ground that day and would certainly have struggled to get the mile in those conditions, but he may well be able to bounce back today on this quicker surface after over a month off despite his rise in the weights this season.

When Oh This Is Us was eighteenth Mustashry (10/1) was ahead of him in twelfth and Sir Michael Stoute will be hoping he can do so again on the same terms here. A son of Tamayuz he has only ever won a maiden but did do so impressively by six lengths from Sunglider who is still a maiden to this day. They clearly think he is a fair bit better than he showed that day to continue to send him to battle in this sort of company but he does need to prove it which won’t be so easy in this race even with the able assistance of Ryan Moore from the saddle.

If you are looking for a horse in form then look no further than Sir Roderic (9/1) who has won amazing five of his seven starts so far this season including last time out over a mile at Sandown. His winning sequence started at Windsor in April off a rating of 67 when he saw off Blacklister by two-and-a-half lengths with his last win off a mark of 90, a rise of twenty-three pounds in less than three months and a pat on the back for trainer Rod Millman who has worked wonders with the son of Roderic O’Connor. If he wants to continue his run he will need to shrug off another five pounds in the ratings today as well as another step up in class but who is to say that won’t happen even if we all know the handicapper will catch up with him eventually.

Looking for something a little more left field and Brian Meehan will be hoping he can now get Perkunas (25/1) back to his peak. The son of Baltic King was on the go from August to December in 2015 when he won a valuable contest in Doha worth over £36,000 to the winner. One more unsuccessful run there was followed by a long (and well deserved) break, and he seems sure to have needed his first run in over four months when fifth to Von Blucher at Newmarket at the July meeting. With that under his belt and a one pound drop in the weights he may not be as far out of this as his odds imply, and if the stable were in better form he could well be a tempter and deserves his place in this race preview.