Royal Ascot: tips for each race on day two

The Queen Mary kicks off day two from with 14 last-time out winners and seven unbeaten fillies lining up among a 26-runner field. Easy! 

While you don’t want to be too far off the speed over the five furlongs at Ascot and the ground should ride pretty quick, the pace looks pretty hot here all the same and I’d generally want to try and side with a prominent runner just out of the heat of battle and ideally from a high draw – of the 55 horses berthed in 20 or higher in this race this century, five have won and six more have placed (1.51 A/E) while those drawn in stalls 1 to 10 have made up just 33 per cent of the winners from 51 per cent of the total runners (0.55 A/E). 

This is open but it’s hard to knock as one who shouldn’t be too far away, and this unbeaten filly has more experience than most (she's a January foal too) thanks to her three starts so far. She shapes like one who will appreciate stepping up to six furlongs sooner rather than later and this test could prove ideal.

She did well to beat a host of previous winners over course and distance on her penultimate start – colts to boot – and she prevailed despite a modest gallop with jockey reporting that he couldn’t pull his mount up past the line. I thought she also did well to prevail in the National Stakes at after breaking slowly, racing behind runners and having to come wide to challenge in a race that didn’t pan out ideally. That was on easy ground, but it’s still a disadvantage to race off the pace over the minimum trip there. 

Enchanting Empress is not flashy, but she finds well and has a good attitude and 14-1 quotes look perfectly reasonable. 

The Queen’s Vase is a race that Aidan O’Brien has farmed in recent times (seven wins and eight more placed from 35 runners, +£24.41, 1.15 A.E) and he has four this year with all having something to recommend them. 

Generally going with the Ballydoyle first-string has proven the best strategy in recent years (26 per cent, 1.27 A/E) yet, while the mount has more to offer up in trip and Ascot should be more to his liking than Lingfield, the quick ground is a small quibble. 

has quick ground form thanks to an impressive success at Leopardstown last time (several winners have come out of that) and, while that was just a maiden, horses have come from such company to run well in this – Santiago and have done so, albeit they went to scale pretty big heights subsequently, but the likes of and have also won or run well in this after a similar preparation and it’s feasible that Highbury could be very high-class himself given his classy pedigree, his €650,000 purchase price as a yearling and the visual impression he has made so far.

rode the Galileo colt at Leopardstown and keeps the partnership here and, given the manner of that latest success, it wouldn’t surprise if he was capable of another sizeable step forward here and at a bigger price than his better-fancied stablemate.

The Duke Of Cambridge looks an interesting puzzle and a potentially appealing one for punters given big fancies and last year’s winner Rogue Millennium arrive here, respectively, after a big absence and not in as obviously as good form as last year. Five-year-olds are just two from 45 in this, too (0.35 A/E).

Four-year-olds have made up 74 per cent of the runners in this down the years, but they’ve still outperformed by delivering 85 per cent of the total winners and is a lightly-raced four-year-old with more to offer, coming here off the back of a career-best at Group Two level and on her seasonal return at the last time.

She can race keenly and hopefully she can get cover early on from stall 12 (this takes place on the Round Course this year), and in a race where the gallop doesn’t look to be particularly strong on paper. She has speed at shorter trips while looking good over a mile on her recent runs, so her versatility - and particularly her speed if this proves something of a speed test – could be potentially decisive.

She superficially has a mountain to climb to reverse form with Rogue Millennium on their Matron Stakes form, but she modestly caught the eye when down the field in that Leopardstown Group One when held up off the pace and she suffered interference in the straight when making some headway. This is easier and she looks an improved model now.

While it’s dangerous in our game to bill a feature race as a match between two high-profile runners – something else often has a tendency of putting their own say on the pre-race narrative – the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes does look a shoot-out between and Inspiral all the same and, despite some small caveats, it’s the mare who gets the vote at the prices given she’s available to back at 11-4 and the Ballydoyle favourite 7-4.

The draw is slightly off-putting for Inspiral in stall 10 and she will likely be dropped in here, but she gets the fast ground that she thrives on and she’s unexposed at this trip, former rider unable to pull her up past the line at Santa Anita when running out an excellent winner of the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf back in November. 

Inspiral looked a bit laboured in the Lockinge despite making a bit of ground from the rear of the field, but hardly anything got into the race behind all-the-way winner and trainer John Gosden has always been clear about how the Frankel mare takes time to come to herself each year – she missed the Guineas as a three-year-old and didn’t return until Royal Ascot last year, while this cold and wet spring has proven a tricky one than usual one for trainers with their fillies and mares.

Inspiral has an excellent record at this meeting – just beaten in the Queen Anne last year and previously a brilliant winner of the Coronation Stakes – and I’d expect her to be at something like her best, with a potential career-best not ruled out as a fairly lightly-raced five-year-old. 

Auguste Rodin is versatile with regards trip and he gets the fast ground he genuinely needs, too, though he has to give Inspiral 3lb and Ballydoyle have had runners beaten at short prices in this in recent years (Luxembourg, Japan, Magical, Camelot, on his first attempt) with Aidan O'Brien runners overall performing below expectation in the race this century (16 per cent, 0.7 A.E).

The 30-runner and 25-runner Royal Hunt Cup and Kensington Palace Stakes respectively over a mile on the straight track provides the handicap action – and Racing TV’s Jack Nicol has a fancy for each: 

Like the opening Queen Mary over course and distance, I’m looking for ones that like to go forward from a high-ish draw in the concluding Listed heat and a couple make appeal on that score.

Hawaiian is the first of those given he looked good on debut at Newbury in a race which has worked out well but he was disappointing in the National Stakes at Sandown Park last time, a Listed heat which hasn’t proven a bad pointer to this down the years. The Kodiac colt looked laboured before the furlong marker and trainer cited the slow ground as the reason for the sub-par effort, one which was clearly too bad to be true given he went off at a very short price. The ground wasn’t that much worse than Newbury according to Timeform, but looking at his stride he didn’t look to travel as comfortably and I think he lost rhythm at around the half way point. He’s 18-1 and he’s worth chancing at that price for a yard who train their juveniles to notably improve during their early career starts. 

is also worth a look at 40-1 after showing a good attitude to score on debut at and she was unlucky down in trip in the Hilary Needler at last time. She could be well berthed from stall 22 and has staying power at the distance in a race which could prove a decent test at the trip. 

That makes appeal, as does the booking of Danny Tudhope who was on board this filly for the Kempton win. The rider has a strike-rate of 13 per cent (1.45 A/E) over five furlongs at Ascot and he has strong statistics at the track overall from around 250 rides, while they read even better still when just taking Royal Ascot rides into account (9 per cent, +£73.50, 1.72 A/E).