Key events
An old favourite rides in the 4.20 Hardwicke Stakes, good old Pyledriver, who has Ascot form.
Frankie’s first ride is aboard a royal carriage
Royal Ascot Carriage List – Saturday, 24th June
1st Carriage
-
The King
-
The Queen
-
The Earl of Caledon
-
The Countess of Caledon
2nd Carriage
3rd Carriage
4th Carriage
-
Mr. Lanfranco Dettori
-
Mrs. Lanfranco Dettori
-
Mr. Jamie Snowden
-
Mrs. Jamie Snowden
Here’s Frankie’s final Royal Ascot rides.
Frankie’s last dance!
Five rides for Frankie Dettori on his final day at #RoyalAscot with plenty of good chances…
— Sky Sports Racing (@SkySportsRacing) June 24, 2023
Ok, it wasn’t Royal Ascot. But Frankie Dettori has a statue to represent his seven-timer in 1996. He’ll back in September for the same meeting.
I’ve read Gary’s book; it’s a bleak old read when it gets to September 1996.
As Frankie steps aside, another fine rider is making his comeback from dark times.
The Timeform ‘p’ suggests Orazio is one to watch for the day.
Here’s Greg Wood’s in-depth betting analysis of the final day.
Ascot 3.40 Sprinters from Australia, Hong Kong and the United States add a fascinating twist to the final Group One of the meeting, but Highfield Princess is the top-rated runner in the field. Her appearance here is a little unexpected after her fine run into second in Tuesday’s King’s Stand Stakes, but John Quinn left her at Ascot to avoid another long journey to and from his yard in Yorkshire and is confident that a mare who has always thrived on racing will be ready to do herself justice.
Frankie Dettori makes his final bow at the Royal meeting today, and his horses have been backed off the boards. Can he follow up his happy Friday?
Full race schedule for Saturday:
Chesham Stakes – 2:30pm
(Guardian tip: La Guarida)
Jersey Stakes – 3:05pm
(Guardian tip: Enfjaar)
Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes – 3:40pm
(Guardian tip: Highfield Princess)
Hardwicke Stakes – 4:20pm
(Guardian tip: Hukum)
Wokingham Stakes – 5pm
(Guardian tip: Apollo One (nap)
Golden Gate Stakes – 5:35pm
(Guardian tip: Lion Of War (nb)
Queen Alexandra Stakes – 6:10pm
(Guardian tip: Run For Oscar)
Going news from Royal Ascot on a very sunny day.
The going for day five of Royal Ascot, Saturday 24th June, is: Good to Firm
GoingStick readings at 8am:
-
Stands side: 7.9
-
Centre: 7.9
-
Far side: 7.8
-
Round: 7.0
Stalls:
-
Straight Course: centre
-
Round Course: inside
Watering:
Watered 5mm on the Straight Course and 4mm on the Round Course after racing on Friday.
Weather:
Dry overnight to 6.30am Saturday. Today is forecast to be dry and warm with temperatures getting up to 27c.
Preamble
Greg Wood
Good morning from Royal Ascot, where Frankie Dettori will go into his final day at the meeting where he has now ridden a total of 81 winners with at least a chance of finishing the week as the top rider for the 8th time in his career.
Dettori has five rides on the Saturday card, four of which are likely to start at a single-figure price, and while number-crunching data analysis tends to suggest that even a top jockey is only a pound or two better than the average, that could easily be worth a couple of lengths at least in a sport where the difference between victory and defeat can be millimetres.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Ryan Moore remains a very hot favourite to take the riders’ prize, has a full book of seven rides on Saturday and will once again extend his lead to two winners if Pearls And Rubies, the market leader, takes the opening Chesham Stakes, one of the three contests in which Dettori does not have a ride.
But when Dettori gets on a roll, his mounts have an uncanny knack of suddenly producing career-best runs, with the confidence boost from one winner feeding into the next. He is, of course, going to give it everything he’s got, and it could make for an enthralling narrative on the final afternoon.
There was very little for Chris Stickels, the clerk of the course, to add to his daily update from yesterday after walking the course this morning. “The going today is good-to-firm and watered,” Stickels said. “The forecast is for a warm, sunny day, with temperatures up to about 28 degrees.”
Hopefully the near-capacity crowd that is expected for the final day will have brought their Factor 50, or enough of them will to share it around. Lobster pink is never the colour at Royal Ascot.
Seven picks that will attempt to at least repair some of the damage after the first four days are here. No matter how desperate the Ascot results have been up until Saturday, we’ll always have the Wokingham.
And you can, of course, follow all the action live here on the blog as the greatest Ascot jockey of modern times rides off into the sunset at the royal meeting.
