Royal Ascot Day 2 Guide + 759/1 Treble

Whilst not matching the usual summer sun that we associate with Royal Ascot, Day One of the 2019 meeting passed in many ways in a similar fashion to what we have come to expect. As usual, our tips for each race are available here, along with our Market Movers.

The Ballydoyle juggernaut dominated, with two winners for Messrs O’Brien and Moore, teaming up with juvenile Arizona, and Circus Maximus who just last month had been pigeonholed as a St. Leger horse (namely, slow), who won the St. James’s Palace Stakes from a number of better fancied rivals.

As usual course form came to the fore, with last year’s second Lord Glitters bouncing right back to form to take the Queen Anne after finishing last in the Lockinge against numerous re-opposing rivals on his previous start.

The King’s Stand was a similar affair to last year, with Battaash once more failing to last the stiff five furlongs, outstayed by Blue Point. One variation was the British winner of the Ascot Stakes, with The Grand Visir overcoming Buildmeupbuttercup, running for the Mullins’ yard who had farmed the race in recent years.

Best Bet

Onto Day Two’s action, with the best bet of the day coming in the form of Western Australia, our NAP of the day, who runs for A P O’Brien who has won four of the last six runnings of this contest. Make sure to take advantage of our Royal Ascot Free Bets & Offers.

Whilst Moore has chosen/been given the ride on stablemate Norway, whose stamina is far from assured, we have become accustomed to seeing Ballydoyle’s “second string” win under the command of Donnacha O’Brien.

A highly promising juvenile, placed in the Vertem Futurity at Doncaster narrowly behind subsequent Guineas’ winners Magna Grecia and Phoenix Of Spain, ahead of Circus Maximus, he was back to somewhere near his best when stepped up to thirteen furlongs last time out. A tidy winner on that occasion, he is unexposed over these longer distances and runs for the all conquering Ballydoyle battalion.

Outsider To Watch

Staying on strongly to finish third on debut in a competitive York novice behind Antepost favourite for the race Bomb Proof and subsequent six length scorer Monoski, Summer Sands took his form to a new level when scoring in a Beverley Conditions race when ahead of four previous winners.

Strong at the finish on both occasions, there will no issue with him seeing out the Ascot hill. Having already come in for early support overnight, he looks an attractive each way bet in a wide open renewal of the Windsor Castle Stakes.

Top Tip

A Group One winner at this venue in October of last year, Magical arrives here in tip top form after three ready successes this spring, the latest at the highest level when scoring by seven lengths.

Having nearly got the better of Enable in last year’s Breeders’ Cup despite having a significantly tougher campaign than Gosden’s star, she boasts some of the strongest form in the line up and is available at a massive 25/1.

Repeat Business

As previously mentioned, Ascot course form is oh so important at the Berkshire venue, and today we have three winners from the 2018 meeting running.

Crystal Ocean romped home in good style in the Hardwicke before finishing just a neck behind the high class Poet’s Word in the King George. He is a proven course performer who arrives here on the back of two ready successes this spring,

This is a far warmer contest, facing no less than five previous Group One winners, however ten furlongs poses no problem for him, and with Dettori taking the ride, he has no one better for the job.

Ed Walker’s Agrotera took advantage of a lenient opening mark of 88 at last year’s meeting when winning the Sandringham by nearly three lengths. A course and distance winner who arrives here after a ready win from a few re-opposing rivals on the All-Weather at Listed level, she looks well up to this challenge.

Settle For Bay landed something of a gamble for his Irish stable when winning the Royal Hunt Cup off a six pound lower mark last year. A comfortable winner on that occasion, a run that suggested this higher mark would be well within reach if reproducing that.

With a number of today’s rivals held on the form book, and after an encouraging fourth at Listed level when staying on from the back at Leopardstown, he looks massively overpriced. The three can be backed at 759/1.