Major mover: Joseph O’Brien Royal Ascot entry backed into 8/1 from 100/1

We like to keep you informed whenever there’s a significant gamble and we’ve spotted a very big one for Royal Ascot next week. The Royal Hunt Cup is a major handicap on Day 2 and one horse has is now as short as 8/1, having been available at 100/1 less than a month ago. Joseph O’Brien trains the horse in question and he’s definitely a shrewd operator, who knows how to target a handicap. Take a look at our free tips page for daily content across British and Irish racing.

Royal Hunt Cup

The Liffey (8/1, boylesports) was initially trained by Aidan O’Brien and made a winning start to his career at the Curragh back in 2023. The form of that race has worked out pretty well since, as runner-up My Mate Alfie is now a Group 3 winner. Stablemate Mountain Bear was back in sixth and he  scored at Listed level later that season.

He only made two more starts for Aidan, struggling in a Group 3 over 7f before returning to winning ways when upped to a mile in a lower grade at Listowel. The son of No Nay Never then made the switch to Joseph O’Brien, for whom he has made one start thus far.

Making his stable debut in a Listed contest at Naas, he kept on well to finish fourth but didn’t quite have the pace to challenge. Returning to a mile should help with that in mind and with a big field handicap such as this, the draw could make a big difference. It’s a very significant market move so it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.

17:00

Ascot

The Liffey

Analysis

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