Key events
Coventry Stakes (3.05pm) market movers
Coventry Stakes (3.05pm) betting
Greg Wood
Coventry Stakes (3.05pm) preview
A huge field for Britain’s first juvenile Group Two event of the season, but no standout contender in the betting with Camille Pisarro and Cowardofthecounty, trained by Aidan O’Brien and his son Joseph respectively, vying for favouritism at around 11-2. Camille Pisarro was a head behind Arizona Blaze, a leading contender for Thursday’s Norfolk Stakes, at the Curragh last time out, while Cowardofthecounty arrives on the back of a two-and-a-half length defeat of Whistlejacket, another big runner in the Norfolk, in a maiden at the Curragh in April. Andesite, who took a warm maiden at York in May, has been scratched this morning but Yah Mo Be There, the runner-up, is still in the running and prominent in the lists. There are plenty more contenders to ponder, but this felt like a race that might see an upset when I sifted through the form yesterday and I’ll be having a bit each-way on one of Richard Fahey’s runners, Columnist. He’s a 33-1 shot, but won his only start to date in a useful time and has what could prove to be a useful draw in stall 15, near several of the likeliest pace-setters.
SELECTION: COLUMNIST
Queen Anne Stakes (2.30pm) result
1 Charyn (S De Sousa) 10-3 Fav
2 Docklands (Hayley Turner) 10-1
3 Maljoom (Tom Marquand) 15-2
13 ran
Non Runner: 13
Queen Anne Stakes (2.30pm)
And they’re off … Big Rock is out fast and leads on the far side with most of the runners on the nearside! Audience has the lead there with Witch Hunter last … Audience goes for home … Charyn has kicked clear and wins in style!
Queen’s Hat (2pm) Stakes market mover
Docklands 9/1 (was 12/1)
Queen’s Hat (2pm) Stakes result
1 Blue 3-1 fav
The Queen Anne Stakes is next, the traditional curtain raiser at Royal Ascot. No doubt it won’t come close to the controversy that surrounded the 1974 running of the race. Let Chris Cook of the Racing Post be your guide … ‘You’ll all be far too busy trying to find winners, or agonising over unlucky losers, to think about this once the action starts at Royal Ascot next week. So let me mention now that we are mere days from the 50th anniversary of one of the most notorious of all horse races, the Queen Anne Stakes of 1974. For anyone who complains about interference as often as I do, it’s required viewing. If you don’t know the story, have a look at the closing stages here. “Sure to be a stewards’ inquiry here,” said Peter O’Sullevan as the runners were cantering back towards the stands. “It was a real bumping, battling finish.” But surely he did not expect the eventual verdict, that the first three finishers were all disqualified – possibly the only time this has happened in the history of British racing. The prize was handed to the Italian-trained Brook, who had stayed on into a distant fourth place.’
Queen Anne Stakes (2.30pm) betting
Greg Wood
Queen Anne Stakes (2.30pm) preview
Royal Ascot gets off to its traditional flying start with a Group One event over a mile, and the race in which the mighty Frankel put up the greatest performance of his career, according to the ratings at least. There is, of course, nothing in today’s race that would get to within half a dozen lengths of the greatest horse of recent decades, but that does also mean that it is a highly competitive renewal and also one in which there are a few questions for some of the principals to answer. The good-to-firm ground may not be ideal for either Big Rock, who would be a very warm favourite on easier going having posted an immense performance to win the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes over track and trip in October. A similar comment applies to Facteur Cheval, the runner-up behind Big Rock in that race, while the merit of the form in the Lockinge Stakes in May, when Audience raced alone and beat Charyn by one-and-three-quarter lengths, is questionable, as the winner’s time was no more than middling-to-decent. I still grind my teeth when recalling Maljoom’s desperately unlucky run in the St James’s Palace Stakes here two years ago, when he carried the additional burden of being the Guardian’s nap of the day but should really have won by a cosy length. He has not shown much in just two runs since, though, and I’m going to take a chance instead on Harry Eustace’s Docklands, who put up one of the handicap performances of the season to win the Britannia Handicap over this course and distance 12 months ago.
SELECTION: DOCKLANDS
Here are the horses you can cross off today as they aren’t turning up
Royal Ascot non-runners
2.30pm Queen Anne Stakes (Group 1) (British Champions Series)
13 Royal Scotsman (self cert – bruised foot)
3.05pm Coventry Stakes (Group 2)
2 Andesite (self cert – injured in box)
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 while there are odds available from Ladbrokes on what colour tifter Queen Camilla will be sporting, the smart people at BestofBets.com have given would-be backers a strong pointer: “When it comes to the fashion stakes, Queen Camilla is less daring than Her late Majesty and she’s unlikely to try to live up to the rainbow-hued sartorial standards set by her late-mother-in-law. Instead, focus is likely to be on softer, less daring, colours, especially during the first half of the week.”
Ladbrokes betting:
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3/1 – Blue/Navy
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4/1 – Cream/White
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5/1 – Pink/Peach
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6/1 – Yellow
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8/1 – Purple
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8/1 – Red
Frankie Dettori’s here … but he won’t be riding. There was some speculation that he would be makein a comeback but his management team told the Racing Post: “He will be enjoying some quality time with family and friends, having his first experience of the meeting out of the saddle.”
We have the first of our regular daily market movers bulletin in courtesy of the folks at Oddschecker. These are the horses being supported in the betting today:
2.30 Queen Anne Stakes
Maljoom, was 10/1, now 7/1
Docklands, was 16/1, now 12/1
Punters favouring backing a few outsiders here, with the favourites a little uneasy in the morning markets.
3.05 Coventry Stakes
Yah Mo Be There, was 10/1, now 7/1 (with this price under threat)
This market has been impacted by the withdrawal of Andesite (6/1 at time of withdrawal)
5.05 Ascot Stakes
Nusret, was 12/1, now 8/1
Divine Comedey, was 12/1, now 7/1
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. The Daily Telegraph is reporting that the King will be there all week bar Wednesday and the Queen on all five days this week.
1st Carriage
The King
The Queen
The Duke of Wellington
The Duchess of Wellington
2nd Carriage
The Princess Royal
The Lady Gabriella Kingston
Mr. Peter Phillips
Mr. John Warren
3rd Carriage
The Earl of Halifax
The Countess of Halifax
Mrs. Simon Elliot
Sir Ben Elliot
4th Carriage
Sir Johnny Weatherby
Lady Weatherby
Mr Ralph Beckett
Mrs Ralph Beckett
“You sound and look very happy”
Chris Stickels, the clerk of the course as he is named in racing parlance, is in charge of preparing the all-important Ascot turf and he seems ultra relaxed this year.
The going for day one, as outlined in Greg’s preamble, is: 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. Perhaps the watering will make a difference. At present there doesn’t seem to be any great advantage on eiother side of the straight track.
GoingStick readings at 8am:
Stands’ side: 8.0
Centre: 7.9
Far side: 8.1
Welcome to Royal Ascot day one … the gates have been open for an hour or so and the folks in their finery are pouring in.
Preamble
Greg Wood
Good morning from Berkshire on the opening day of Royal Ascot 2024. As the song has it, “ev’ry duke and earl and peer is here/Ev’ryon who should be here is here/What a smashing, positively dashing/Spectacle: the Ascot op’ning day.”
For the purists, there is no better day all week. Three Group One races, the first big race of the season for juvenile colts and the historic Ascot Stakes Handicap over the Gold Cup trip of two-and-a-half miles all feature on the programme, and the jam on the mid-afternoon scone this year is that for the first time since 2016, this year’s running of the St James’s Palace Stakes will include the winners of the 2,000 Guineas in England, Ireland and France.
The weather, for the moment at least, is also playing ball, with the going assessed as good-to-firm after 5mm of watering overnight. There is very little difference between the two sides of the straight course, either, with the GoingStick reading 8.1 on the far side and 8.0 against the stand rail. Friday is currently forecast to be the only day all week with much chance of a significant shower, so fingers crossed.
There is always a slightly otherworldly feel about Royal Ascot, as if it is frozen in an ever-repeating loop with minor tweaks to the hats and hemlines, but there are, of course, all sorts of other things going on this year, both within the racing bubble and outside.
The crowd figures this week will be scrutinised for any sign that the royal meeting is suffering from the same, abrupt decline in attendance that has afflicted Cheltenham and Aintree in particular this year. The sport’s prospects under a new Labour government – it’s a 1-33 chance on Betfair – will also be keenly discussed by the racing bigwigs in attendance.
Picks for all seven races on the Tuesday card are here, the Queen Anne Stakes is due off at 2.30pm and the royal procession, if you’re into that kind of thing, will be heading down the course at around 2pm. As ever, there’s no official confirmation as yet that the King and Queen will be here, but as they’ve renamed the third race on the card in his honour, it would be rather rude not to.
