Royal Ascot tips: Gold Cup day picks from Dave Nevison

Our pundit and resident website tipster Dave Nevison is mounting a twin challenge on the 29-runner Buckingham Palace Handicap and likes three more runners on day three at Royal Ascot.Check out our best free bets and bookmaker offers for the big meeting here.

I love the Gold Cup, but I’ve mostly won with multiple winners of the race that were the outstanding stayers of their time. We’re definitely in an era where things are very different, but I’m thinking of having a swing at one that might be capable of showing himself a top-class Cup horse stepping up in trip for the first time.

2.30 Ascot: Elite Status

Karl Burke was one of the first trainers I had horses with when he was training jumpers in Wantage and I have watched his progress to becoming one of the top trainers in the country with great interest. He has shown himself a brilliant trainer of two-year-olds in particular and it looks like Elite Status might be very well-named and his best yet.

In two runs so far the Havana Grey colt has shown himself exceptionally speedy yet also versatile in terms of ground conditions. He handled the step up from novice level to Listed class with ease at Sandown last time and that is good enough for me.

Burke can train Royal Ascot winners and, though I nearly always avoid races full of unexposed improvers, I think there will have to be something very fast in the line-up to beat this one.

4.20 Ascot: Yibir

This is the most open Gold Cup I can remember, with several horses within 1lb or so of each other on Timeform ratings. However, I definitely think that Yibir is a bet as I have long thought he might be worth converting into a Cup horse - and his best form is already equal to the best of them in this race.

Yibir is a really lazy and almost stubborn type, but rider William Buick gets on particularly well with the five-year-old and produced him with a really powerful late surge to land the Breeders’ Cup Turf last November.

He's won a Group Three over 1m5f, the furthest he has raced over, but his German-bred dam by Monsun won twice at two miles and Yibir’s page is all about stamina. Charlie Appleby is a brilliant trainer and, to me, this looks a really strong decision to step Yibir up to this trip.

He has a comfortable draw in stall 6 and, if Buick gets Yibir settled early, I don’t think any in this field will have answers to his late surge.

6.10 Ascot: Baradar and Croupier

I make no apologies for going with two in this massive cavalry charge and I will be disappointed if neither of these goes close.

Anyone who backed Baradar last time endured a nightmare watching him, the five-year-old getting stuck in traffic after being directed down the wrong route in the Victoria Cup in May. He was backed into 13-2 for that big handicap so was clearly thought to be ahead of his mark, and that rating is unchanged.

I have to be hopeful that Kevin Stott will get the breaks this time and, if one of the deluges that have been around hits Ascot, he will be even more suited by the demands of this contest. All the same, trainer George Boughey has a knack of getting it right in big races.

Croupier has only gone up 3lb for winning a good race at York last time which I think is very generous, even though he won narrowly. He has to be considered for this.

The easy mile at York can easily be compared to the stiff seven furlongs here, so I have no fears about him dropping down in trip - especially given the way he was all out in the final furlong last time.

Simon and Ed Crisford’s four-year-old is lightly-raced but has a good win record, though in his case I would definitely not be backing him if significant rain came in reference to his Lincoln reappearance on very deep ground at Doncaster.

It may be that Croupier has a good draw here in stall 23 and William Buick retains the ride after only taking the reins for the first time at York.