Royal Ascot: eight eye-catchers plus a 50/1 tip

Has there ever been bigger fields at Royal Ascot? A mammoth 602 runners were in action at the meeting, although favourite backers fared well enough with ten clear market leaders obliging. 

Below are eight eye-catchers at the meeting. The Racing TV team always look for horses who were beaten when compiling lists like this but I’m starting with a winner who looks a big price to win at the Cheltenham Festival in March! 

Kept on stoutly to win the closing 1m 6f handicap on day one of the meeting, when having his second start for the Willie Mullins yard after being sold for what is now already a bargain 60,000 euros in November. 

The Ebor and Melbourne Cup are possible targets – he’s a best-priced 10/1 for the former and 25/1 for the latter – but it’s the 50/1 available about him winning the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham that catches my eye. 

He had warmed up for his Ascot success by romping home in a maiden hurdle at Punchestown last month. His jumping was a mix, but he tanked along and won easily, as you might expect for a horse who would subsequently go on to win off a mark of 100 at the Royal Meeting. 

Even if the seven-year-old is put by for the Ebor and Australia, there would still be time for Mullins to give him a run or two more over hurdles in the New Year before mid-March. Belloccio will need to brush up his leaping but there’s no doubting he has the speed and raw ability to be a big player. He should be viewed as the decisive winner of a top-class bumper who has already shown an aptitude for jumping, but the bookmakers are not seeing it that way. 

I doubt the Charlton camp or jockey William Buick will care to watch his run back many times. It was a story of what might have been. 

King’s Gambit had impressed when winning the London Gold Cup on his previous start when as usual, he raced prominently, but on this occasion, he was held up in rear and was still last of the 12 runners with three furlongs to go. That cannot have been Plan A. 

From then on, the son of Saxon Warrior stayed on powerfully but Jayarebe, who was handy from the outset, was not for catching. It will be of little consolation to backers of King’s Gambit, who went off a well-backed favourite, that he was easily the fastest horse in the race in each of the final two furlongs of this mile and a quarter contest. 

Al Kazeem, Time Rest and Headman have been previous winners of the London Gold Cup sent out from Beckhampton and they went on to be classy pattern performers. There’s little doubt that King’s Gambit will also soon be making his mark at a higher level. 

The silks of Wathnan Racing were in the thick of the action at all week. ended up being one of their also-rans but it’s surely only a matter of time before he lands a good handicap for them. 

Anchored in rear here, he impressed with the way he moved though the field – moved up to third at one stage - only to run out of puff in the closing stages. That was partly down to his exuberant nature plus, possibly, 12 furlongs stretching his stamina. 

He’s in the 6 Horse Challenge At bet365 Handicap over a mile-and-a-quarter at Newmarket on July 12 and that £100,000 contest is an obvious next port of call. 

My colleague Ross Millar will be giving a full review of the two-year-old races in his Juvenile Watch column this week and I’m sure will be getting a favourable mention. 

This filly’s supporters must have been on good terms with themselves inside the final furlong as she was still motoring along and looked to have all bases covered. On Betfair, she traded 1.08 (about 1/12) in running. 

However, Fairy Godmother, her stablemate, and Simmering came with sustained runs to cut her down late on. 

has three more entries over 6f between now and August 10. She clearly has enough toe to win a pattern race over the trip but I’m excited to see what she will do when unleashed over a bit further. 

She’s her dam’s tenth foal and they have all largely been middle-distance performers, with one even landing multiple 3m hurdle races. 

She raced from 2lb out of the handicap in this 30-runner handicap and went off at 40/1, but I had her at the top of my shortlist as her penultimate run, when chasing home Francophone at Southwell, suggested she was on a good mark. 

I got the theory right, but the conclusion worked out wrong as she was drawn in stall 1 and the race was dominated by those drawn high. 

The only horse to beat her on the far side was the well-fancied Indelibe, a 91-rated runner who has Group One entries. 

Battle Queen will have loads of future options, including in 0-80 company. This was only her second run on turf and she should have a lucrative second half of the season. 

This John & Thady Gosden-trained filly travelled well for a long way before getting outpaced and fading out of contention. 

I’m not sure fast ground is what she wants, with the memory of her effortless 12-length maiden win on soft going at Wetherby in April still fresh in the mind. 

If she were mine, I’d already have the Fillies & Mares race on QIPCO British Champions Day, in mid-October, ringed on her calendar. She would likely get her conditions at a meeting that her sire, Cracksman, lit up on two occasions. 

Given she’s a half-sister to Courage Mon Ami, winner of the Gold Cup last season, I’d imagine her connections will also give her a spin over further at some stage. 

This speedy colt made a bold bid to make all in Tuesday’s big sprint only to be collared in the closing stages. 

The pair who nabbed him, Asfoora and Regional, raced in a smaller group nearer the stands’ side who, overall, perhaps raced a bit more economically. 

has bundles of pace and the King George, at Goodwood, and Nunthorpe, at York, look obvious next races for him, not least because those tracks favour the genuine pace merchants even more. Rematches with Asfoora are on the cards in those races.

He disappointed in the latter race last summer, as a juvenile, but showed the track suits when scoring on his return there in May. 

This progressive colt went off joint-favourite for Thursday’s mile handicap but was not seen to best advantage from stall 3 in a race where none of the first ten home were drawn lower than 15. 

Volterra was first home in a group of 11 on his part of the track, and he deserves credit for that as he was keen and Neil Callan had little option but to kick on two out as he would have no doubt been aware the race was unfolding elsewhere. 

The Farhh colt had previously beaten Skukuza in commanding fashion at Newmarket and there’s nothing wrong with that form, as that horse was runner-up in the Britannia.