Key events
Queen’s Hat Stakes (2pm)
1 Cream/White 3-1.
The favourite has come in!
Before King Charles turns up in a couple of minutes in the royal procession, his former butler Grant Harrold has told Boylesports he’s only going to be there “out of duty.”
“The King will go this year because it’s a thing that royals go to Ascot and it is a royal event. But I can make a bet that you won’t see the King running out of the box with excitement over the possibility of winning a race. He rides and he’s got a love for the animals as well, but the racing part was much his mother’s passion. I’m not saying he doesn’t have a flutter, but it’s not something you would go to.
“However, his wife, the new Queen, loves horse racing. In fact, we often see her at Cheltenham. Anne has always been a lover along with her daughter Zara. I think the new Queen will be the one maybe stepping forward in that role and presenting the prizes. I think the King will present the prize, but who knows? Maybe the new Queen will be given that honour as she is more of a lover of racing.
“We see him at it, so it’s not as if he doesn’t go to them. I think it’s more something that he’ll probably go because it’s his duty to go, it’s something it’s expected the royal family to do. I think it’s fair to say that it was very much his mother’s sport.”
Another non-runner in the King’s Stand Stakes this afternoon …
Queen Anne Stakes (2.30pm) preview
The debate over Ascot’s insistence on running three Group Ones on day one in front of the second-smallest crowd of the week is apparently closed from the track’s point of view, so a race that could be a very worthy highlight in front of a packed house of 70,000 on Friday or Saturday will be seen instead by roughly half that number as Modern Games, Inspiral and Native Mission, who have won eight Group One or Grade One races between them already, duke it out down the straight mile. Modern Games, who took the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury last time, a race that is also run on a straight track, has edged in front of Inspiral in the betting this morning, with the pair currently trading at 9-4 and 5-2 respectively, but the memory of Inspiral’s devastating success on the round course here in last season’s Coronation Stakes, which was also her first race of the season, remains strong and she is possibly the one to be on.
Don’t rule out Native Mission, though, as last year’s Irish 2,000 Guineas winner should definitely come on significantly for his seasonal debut behind Mutasaabeq, who is also in today’s field, while lightly-raced Cash is another to bear in mind for each-way purposes. He has just one win to his name but was just a short-head behind Westover, the subsequent Irish Derby winner, in last year’s Sandown Classic Trial.
SELECTION: INSPIRAL
Don’t put East Asia (5pm) on your betting slips. He has an abscess and won’t be turning up.
Una Healy of the Saturdays is at Ascot and that’s a nice tribute to Frankie Dettori right there …
Chris Stickels also told us that the far side (ie those nearest the rail and so those drawn in the low-numbered stalls) on the straight course is the quickest ground. Marginally anyway.
Going stick readings in straight according to Stickell’s on SSR now. Far side 7.5, mid 7.1, stands 7.3. Memo to jockeys. A straight line remains the fastest route home.
— David Johnson (@davidjohnsonTF) June 20, 2023
Some important jockey news … and the Puerto Rican jockey Irad Ortiz has clearly eaten something that has disagreed with him.
🚨 BREAKING : Just in from Wesley Ward. Unfortunately Irad Ortiz has food poisoning and is not well. John Velazquez will ride both his runners today. @Ascot @itvracing @FanDuelTV
— Christina Blacker (@ChristinaFDTV) June 20, 2023
Nice touch from Frankie Dettori on Twitter where he’s just posted this … film of his first ever winner at Royal Ascot (Markofdistiniction way back in 1990)
The going change is here, it’s now official and it’s not insignificant (certainly so on the round course where the going is now on the soft side).
The going @Ascot has changed ahead of R1:
Round course – Good, Good to Soft in places (From Good, Good to Firm in places)
Straight course – Good (From Good to Firm)— BHA Stewards (@BHAStewards) June 20, 2023
Frankie Dettori will be the name on everyone’s lips this week given it’s his final Royal Ascot but he’s had a setback already with the news that one of his best-backed mounts, Manaccan, will not be lining up in the King’s Stand Stakes at 3.40pm today.
Royal Procession (2pm)
1st Carriage
The King
The Queen
The Duke of Wellington
The Duchess of Wellington
2nd Carriage
The Princess Royal
Mrs. Simon Elliot
Sir Ben Elliot
Lady Elliot
3rd Carriage
The Duke of Gloucester
The Duchess of Gloucester
The Lord Bamford
The Lady Bamford
4th Carriage
Mr. Willie Mullins
Mrs. Willie Mullins
Mr. Ralph Beckett
Mrs. Ralph Beckett
Full race schedule for Tuesday
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Queen Anne Stakes – 2:30pm
(Guardian tip: Inspiral) -
Coventry Stakes – 3:05pm
(Guardian tip: Asadana) -
King’s Stand Stakes – 3:40pm
(Guardian tip: Highfield Princess) -
St James’s Palace Stakes – 4:20pm
(Guardian tip: Isaac Shelby – nb) -
Ascot Stakes – 5pm
(Guardian: Calling The Wind- nap) -
Wolferton Stakes – 5:35pm
(Guardian tip: Cadillac) -
Copper Horse Stakes – 6:10pm
(Guardian tip: Ruling Dynasty)
If you want a betting tip today it’s to have a good look at the Tote odds at the meeting. Royal Ascot became the first British meeting to be part of the World Pool initiative back in 2019. The World Pool is a collaboration between several countries around the globe which allows punters to bet into the same pool as those from eight countries on specific racedays , including every day of the royal meeting.
The World Pool generates greater liquidity while also being able to go against fellow bettors from across the globe. This means that punters can place larger, more significant bets without having an impact on a horse’s price. For example, if you’d placed a £1 bet on each winner across 2022’s 17 World Pool days in Britain and Ireland, you’d have a 16% higher return compared to the usual, standard SP.
Punters can do so via the Tote website and mobile app, bookmakers that offer Tote betting and on the racecourses themselves.
Michael Fitzsimons, Executive Director, Wagering Products, at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, told me: “World Pool was born at Royal Ascot four years ago and it’s been hugely satisfying to see how much progress we’ve made. In 2019, there were a total of 30 World Pool races and we’re going to be closing in on 200 races in 2023. The value on offer for racing fans globally is truly exceptional.”
It’s almost that time again … the announcement of who will be in the royal procession down the track at about 2pm. We can expect the details of who will be in the procession at around midday.
This, of course, is also the time when I traditionally mention the Serpentine gallery exhibition by artist Mark Wallinger I saw back in 1994 when one of his installations, called ‘Royal Ascot’, consisted of a series of video monitors on top of wheeled flight cases, each isolating the royal carriage’s leisurely progress down the track on the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (respectively, as it was then) of the meeting with the added TV commentary.
The British Council described the work thus: “Simultaneous footage exposes precise choreography: the Queen’s frozen smile and rigid curls, the tilt of her head, her gloved wave, the Duke of Edinburgh raising his top hat, the national anthem striking up. Appropriately for an event whose media coverage focuses on the parade of hats and dresses rather than the sport, here we have a close-up on clothes, on the Queen’s dolly mixture of pinks, tangerines, limes; the difference from day to day is barely discernible, just as the four BBC commentaries merge in a confused blather.”
As the critic Martin Herbert observed: “What Wallinger’s synchronised footage reveals is the rigidity of the class system in tangible form: the event is surreally identical every day.”
The point Wallinger was making is that the overall difference from day to day was barely discernible but what will be different this week is that King Charles III will be in the first carriage and that he will reportedly be there every day (something he won’t enjoy as he regularly used to scuttle off after the Tuesday).
Queen’s Hat Stakes (2pm) betting
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3/1 Cream/White
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4/1 Blue/Navy
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5/1 Pink/Peach
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6/1 Yellow
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8/1 Purple
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8/1 Red
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10/1 Green
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10/1 Orange
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Boylesports betting
Queen’s Hat Stakes (2pm) preview
Our regular reader knows that we always start with the traditional opening betting heat of the day, the Queen’s Hat Stakes. The late Queen Elizabeth was a regular presence at the track during her long reign until failing health prevented her attending. Odds on the colour of her titfer were regularly offered by bookmakers and with reportedly the new King and Queen set to attend every day then the tradition is back.
A spokesperson for BestofBets.com tells me: “Earlier this week, BoyleSports confirmed that they are in fact continuing this long-standing tradition with the torch being passed to Queen Camilla with odds on what colour she wears on all five days.”
I also got a form preview as I was told: “Bookies have agreed that Queen Camilla’s likely to go for a more muted approach with cream/white shades being the current favourite.”
Chris Stickels has been on Sky Sports Racing just now and told reporter Zoe Bird: “I can see a slight ease in the description but I don’t think it will be drastic.” With that he was off to walk around the track …
Good morning and welcome to the royal meeting day one. Ascot, unlike Cheltenham, pushed their royal meeting into the weekend with its first Royal Ascot Saturday in 2002 and that was an immediate success. But five days of high-class racing make this a marathon (a Queen Alexandra Stakes if you like) not a sprint (a King’s Stand) and it’s key to pace yourself.
The first thing we need to know is what effect the 10mm of rain overnight and this morning has had on the ground. But we won’t know the details of the going until near to midday apparently which is, er, frustrating.
“We anticipate an ease in the going but it is too early to say what it will be before the rain we’ve had has properly soaked in,” reported clerk of the course Chris Stickels.
“We had 10mm, or just under, and most of that came in the heavy shower this morning, which came just after we originally walked the track. We’ll let that rain settle in and the ground will be reassessed by midday at the latest.”
We’ll get you the details as soon as we get them.
Welcome to our Royal Ascot coverage
Greg Wood
Good morning and welcome to Ascot racecourse, where the weather forecast is a little iffy and the track has already soaked up around 10mm of rain since midnight, but around 40,000 racegoers in their finest gladrags are due to arrive imminently for day one of Royal Ascot 2023.
The track’s official weather and going webpage will be generating plenty of traffic this morning, while Chris Stickels, the clerk of the course, has recently issued an update on the ground via Twitter.
“The going will be reassessed at midday after 10mm of rain has just fallen,” Stickels said. “The current going description is good-to-firm in the straight and good, good-to-firm in places on the round course, but this will be updated once that rain has soaked through and we’ve have a chance to reassess the track.”
Despite the softening conditions underfoot, the first-day racegoers could be said to be smart in more ways than one.
This is the only day of the five-day meeting which stages three Group One events – the Queen Anne Stakes, the King’s Stand Stakes and the St James’s Palace Stakes – and yet, year after year, it is fourth out of five in terms of attendance. Only tomorrow’s card – which features the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, often the highest-quality race of the entire meeting – pulls in fewer racegoers.
Baaeed and Coroebus were both odds-on for the Queen Anne and St James’s Palace respectively 12 months ago, but the shortest-priced favourite on the first day this year is Vauban, in the Copper Horse Handicap at the end of the card, at around 13-8.
On the Flat, it does not get much better than this.
One rider, inevitably, will be the centre of attention as the meeting gets underway. Frankie Dettori is Mr Ascot, and a double on Inspiral and Chaldean would get his final royal meeting off to an explosive start. His first-day book of rides, in fact, may well turn out to be the best of his week, and now also includes a £1.1m juvenile after vGivemethebeatboys, a big fancy for the Coventry Stakes, was knocked down for a seven-figure sum at the Goffs London Sale on Monday evening.
Bookies will be braced for a Frankie charge on the first afternoon, although Ryan Moore, who is just four winners behind Dettori in third place on the all-time list at the meeting, is a very warm favourite to end the week as the top jockey. William Buick, champion on the Flat for the first time last year, is also very much in the conversation, as is Oisin Murphy, whose suspension in 2022 meant that he did not get a chance to defend the title that he won for the first time in 2021.
Picks for the first seven races at this year’s royal meeting are here, and you can, as ever, follow all the news, views, gambles and results here on the blog, all the way until the Copper Horse Stakes at what is now the meeting’s traditional last-race time of 6.10pm.
