Royal Ascot week - does life get any better than this? The pinnacle of our sport displayed as a five day onslaught of ultra competitive races brimming with equine talent. This isn't the time to be messing around; Royal Ascot is serious business and you're going to need all of the insights available to find some winners. A brief overview of a few of the races tomorrow should be enough to whet the appetite. Here we go....
The Queen Anne Stakes (14:30) looks wide open and there's a French invasion for the British contingent to deal with. The race is set up to be run quite literally as a cavalry charge; there's an abundance of front runners in the field which could set up for a closer.
When winning the Lockinge at Newbury last month, Audience (7/1) was having his first run over this 1 mile distance and had Charyn (7/2), Big Rock (6/1), Poker Face (25/1), Royal Scotsman (16/1), Witch Hunter (33/1) and Flight Plan (50/1) all beaten in behind. Maintaining this form would without doubt be a mighty effort and word from the pundit world is that Audience could run out of steam late on up the stiff Ascot finish. Facteur Cheval (10/3) seems to be the leading French fancy and warmed up for this with a nice win over in Meydan. He's had one run at Ascot previously, which resulted in a 6 length beating at the hands of Big Rock on his beloved soft ground. It'll be much firmer ground today. It's a head scratcher.
The St James's Palace Stakes (16:25) is touted as the race of the week and we're fully on board with the hype. Rosallion (7/2) is geared up to have another crack at his 2000 Guineas conqueror Notable Speech (11/10). After an unconventional preparation of three runs on the all weather at Kempton, Notable Speech hosed up in the Newmarket classic earning him a lofty rating of 122. Rosallion was conceding race fitness that day so connections will be hoping the switch to a turning track and peak fitness will be enough to close the gap. There's also that man, Ryan Moore, to consider who's on fire at the moment; he's likely to get an easy lead on Henry Longfellow (9/2) which is always dangerous. All known evidence suggests the rest will do well to be involved in the finish.
There will be limited form available for study in the Coventry Stakes (15:05), a race for the 2 year olds. All bar two of the runners have raced only once or twice in their short careers. Limited data? Never fear, THM Average Speed analysis tool is here. The speed analysis indicators are really following the market trends; a sea of green at the top of the market and red for the less fancied runners. Cowardofthecounty (5/1) and Camille Passaro (13/2) are the top Irish challengers - the latter is Aidan O'Brien's sole representative so should always be feared. Andesite (6/1) fought bravely on debut to beat Yah Mo Be There (9/1) by a head, with a yawning gap back to the 3rd. That looked a strong piece of form at the time. Both have been well backed in recent days and posted rock solid average speed figures over this 6 furlong trip on their York introduction.
Best of luck all!