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Key events
Greg Wood
Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (3.45pm) preview
The last of the eight Group One races this week, with Khaadem returning to the scene of his last-gasp victory at 80-1 last year, but with a new jockey aboard in Oisin Murphy, as Jamie Spencer has switched to Khaadem’s stable companion, Mitbaahy. He had both Art Power and Shouldvebeenaring behind him when successful in the Greenlands Stakes in Ireland in May. Another key form line is likely to be the Duke Of York Stakes at York last month, when Mill Stream edged out Shoulvebeenaring with Washington Heights and Swingalong unplaced, while Shartash has been snapped up by the Wathnan Racing operation since winning the Listed Spring Trophy at Haydock in early May.
SELECTION: MITBAAHY
Callum Shepherd, who won the Harwicke Stakes with Isle Of Jura, was of course the jockey who lost the ride on Derby runner-up Ambiente Frendly. The victory will feel very sweet.
Isle Of Jura completes five-timer in Hardwicke Stakes (3.05pm)
Result:
1 Isle Of Jura (Callum Shepherd) 16-1
2 Goliath (M Guyon) 18-1
3 Middle Earth (Oisin Murphy) 9-4
9 ran
Hardwicke Stakes (3.05pm)
And they’re off … Elegant Man takes the lead with Continous in midfield and running a bit keen in the early stages … Candleford is in second as they head for home … they turn for home with Elegant Man still in the lead … Isle Of Jura took it up halfway down the home straight and kicks clear for a smooth success.
And here’s trainer Aidan O’Brien on his new star filly Bedtime Story … she will be out next in a fillies’ race in Ireland with a view to running in the Moyglare Stakes.
Bedtime Story “reached 40 miles per hour in the sixth furlong” … Ruby Walsh takes us through an imperious performance.
Hardwicke Stakes (3.05pm) betting
Greg Wood
Hardwicke Stakes (3.05pm) preview
Sound the royal runner klaxon. Desert Hero, who came with a late rattle to win the King George V Handicap here last year, is back, and this time he’s taking aim at Group Two company, over the same mile-and-a-half trip. William Haggas’s four-year-old was an 18-1 outsider 12 months ago but is priced up at around 8-1 today, which is probably a fair reflection of his chance in a strong renewal of this Group Two contest. There is a Classic winner in the field – Continuous, who took the St Leger last September – and Aidan O’Brien’s colt is the likely favourite, despite the fact that he has not seen a track since running a very creditable fifth behind Ace Impact in last year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Among the runners with form this season, the biggest threat appears to be Middle Earth, the winner of the Aston Park Stakes at Newbury, though he was a long way behind Continuous in the Leger, while the course-specialist Continuous – another runner from the Haggas stable – will definitely interest any each-way punters who feel the favourite may need the race.
SELECTION: CONTINUOUS
That first winner (nine and a half lengths was the winning margin) looked very good indeed and is 3-1 favourite for the 1,000 Guineas with Betfair for next spring at Newmarket. Ryan Moore was also impressed.
Bedtime puts them to sleep in Chesham Stakes (2.30pm)
Result:
1 Bedtime Story (R L Moore) 11-8 Fav
2 Pentle Bay (Tom Marquand) 5-1
3 Brian (L P Keniry) 28-1
15 ran
Non Runners: 3,6,12
Chesham Stakes (2.30pm)
And they’re off … Moon Sniper away well and Motawahj very keen as they approach the final half of the race … Bedtime Story has kicked clear and won as easy as any at Royal Ascot in modern history! Wow – that was a brilliant performance.
Full list of non-runners
2.30
3 Chilly Breeze (lame)
6 Harvey (not eaten up)
12 Seaplane (abnormal scope)
3.45
4 Kinross (going)
4.25
16 Take Me To Church (pricked foot)
5.05
8 Apollo One (travel)
13 Wodao (not sound)
23 Aleezdancer (going)
25 Gorak (not eaten up)
5.40
3 Arabic Legend (going)
5 Balmacara (going)
7 Primo Lara (cast in box)
11 Dambuster (going)
6.15
1 Trueshan (going)
7 Tashkhan (going)
12 Ndaawi (going)
13 Queenstown (withdrawn)
14 Grand Providence (going)
Queen’s Hat (2pm)
1 White/cream 8-1
Chesham Stakes (2.30pm) betting
Greg Wood
Chesham Stakes (2.30pm) preview
Charlie Appleby’s search for a Royal Ascot winner continues after Mountain Breeze, his only runner on Friday’s card, could finish only fourth in the opener yesterday, and if Age Of Gold – his sole runner on the card, and only his sixth of the entire meeting – cannot get him off the mark for the week here, it will mean a second blank at the meeting in as many seasons for the champion on the Flat in 2021 and 2022. Three in 10 of his runners this year have been winners, which The really odd thing – and it was the same last year – is that Appleby’s overall strike rate – 30pc in 2024 so far – is still the best in the business among the top yards, and only 1pc behind his strike rate in 2022, when he finished the season on top of the pile. He is an exceptionally good trainer, and places his horses brilliantly. But in what is always going to be a numbers game, he just can’t seem to find a core squad of Group One calibre to compete at the biggest meetings. A win for Age Of Gold – in a race that Appleby won with the subsequent juvenile champion colt, Pinatubo, a few years ago – would definitely steady the nerves, and this will possibly be something of a match with Aidan O’Brien’s Bedtime Story, the winner of his only start so far.
SELECTION: AGE OF GOLD
The Fonz is at Royal Ascot on Saturday … he will be presenting the winning connections of the Jersey Stakes with their trophy.
There has been a lot of talk about how uncompetitive Cheltenham has become and Timeform’s David Johnson has been dowing some research on how the major jumps festival compares with the premier Flat one at Royal Ascot:
How to measure meeting competitiveness? Comparing first 4 days at Royal Ascot with 4 days at Cheltenham, the median SP of winners is surprisingly similar 5/1 at Cheltenham v 11/2 at Royal Ascot. Cheltenham 5 at odds-on though v 0 at Royal Ascot and 8 at <2/1 compared to 4 at RA.
— David Johnson (@davidjohnsonTF) June 22, 2024
Royal Procession (2pm)
The runners are in for the first event, the one that the bulk of the crowd are perhaps more captivated by than the actual races. The all-conquering Irish trainer Willie Mullins is in the carriages on Saturday as is the man behind Qatar Racing, Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani.
Queen’s Hat Stakes (2pm) preview
There was always a lively betting market on the colour of the monarch’s hat when Queen Elizabeth II was attending the meeting and Ladbrokes are betting on what colour headwear Camilla will be sporting today. Our form guide is the team at BestofBets.com who always keep a close eye on this novelty market and they state: “Away from the betting ring, bookmakers are continuing the tradition of betting on the colour of the Queen’s hat. Having worn three different shades of blue this week, punters are convinced that Queen Camilla will be dressed in pink for the final day of the royal meeting.”
Queen’s hat – Ladbrokes betting Day 5
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Pink/Peach 4/1
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Green 4/1
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Yellow 5/1
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Orange 6/1
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Red 6/1
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White/Cream 8/1
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Blue 8/1
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Purple 8/1
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Gold 12/1
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Silver 20/1
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Brown 20/1
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Black 25/1
Non-runners update
There’s an important non-runner in the final race as the strongly fancied Queenstown will not be running.
4.25
16 Take Me To Church (pricked foot)
5.05
8 Apollo One (travel)
5.40
3 Arabic Legend (going)
6.15
13 Queenstown (vets advice)
It’s almost that time again … the royal procession will make its way down the track as ever at about 2pm and we can expect the details of who will be in the carriages at 12 noon. After they’ve been entertained at lunch by Prince Andrew (yes you read that right, Prince Andrew) at Windsor Castle they will set off for the racecourse in the carriages, the incumbents of which are never revealed each day at Royal Ascot until 12 noon.
ITV Racing presenter Ed Chamberlin is thinking along the same lines as me and has written in his Daily Mail column today: “I’ll never forget having the opportunity, as part of our filming, to take a carriage ride from Windsor Castle, down the Long Walk to arrive at Ascot’s Golden Gates, though we didn’t go through them as the Royal Family do. During our journey, I began thinking about the Royal procession. It’s all part of the tradition of this meeting, the event that makes Ascot so symbolic, but I couldn’t help feeling it needs a modern tweak.
“When the carriages have arrived in front of the stands this week, there has been a smattering of applause. It’s different if the Princess of Wales is involved, as her presence usually leads to an excited crackle, but I’d love to see different guests invited. What an amazing thing it would be for Sir Alan Bates, who exposed the scandal in the Post Office, to be in a carriage or some of the NHS heroes who have been there for us through one of the most challenging times of our lives.”
I seriously think this will be the sort of thing that will happen once the Prince of Wales is on the throne but would be fascinating if Charles makes the move first.
Here’s your line-up for today’s sport, courtesy of a classy Ascot tweet, er X, oh you know what I mean:
Market movers
We have the last of our regular daily market movers bulletin in courtesy of the folks at Oddschecker. These are the horses supported overnight:
4.25pm – Pearls And Rubies 50/1 -> 11/1
5.40pm – Whiskey Pete 25/1 -> 9/1
6.15pm- Run For Oscar 11/2 -> 11/4
Here are the horses you can cross off your racecards today as they won’t be turning up
2.30pm Chesham Stakes
3 Chilly Breeze (self cert – lame)
6 Harvey (self cert – not eaten up)
12 Seaplane (vet’s cert – abnormal scope)
3.45pm Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes
4 Kinross (self cert – going)
5.05pm Wokingham Stakes
23 Aleezdancer (going)
25 Gorak (self cert – not eaten up)
5.40pm Golden Gates Handicap
3 Arabic Legend ((going)
5 Balmacara (self cert – going)
7 Primo Lara (self cert – cast in box)
6.15pm Queen Alexandra Stakes
1 Trueshan (self cert – going)
12 Ndaawi (self cert – going)
14 Grand Providence (self cert – going)
The going for the final day, as outlined in Greg’s preamble, is, wait for it again, … still Good to Firm. Which is good as punters have not been bamboozled by swift changes of racing surface. As has been all week there still doesn’t seem to be any great advantage on either side of the straight track.
GoingStick readings at 8am:
Stands’ side: 8.6
Centre: 8.8
Far side: 8.5
Preamble
Greg Wood
Good morning from Ascot on the fifth and final day of the royal meeting, as what is expected to be the biggest crowd of the week is starting to assemble for a card which has something for everyone.
The Hardwicke Stakes at 3.05pm includes both a Classic winner – Continuous – and a very live runner in the royal colours in Desert Hero, the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at 3.45pm and the Wokingham Handicap at 5.05pm are terrific betting heats, and the two-and-three-quarter mile Queen Alex at the end of the card is, well, as endearingly oddball as always.
The only thing missing, in fact, is any real sense of drama or narrative about the races to be the top trainer and jockey at the meeting. Aidan O’Brien has had everything bar a pinkie finger on the trainers’ prize since the middle of day three, and could take the day off today and still finish comfortably clear thanks to this five winners already. No one else has managed more than two, and of those, only Karl Burke has runners in enough races to have even a million-to-one chance of making up the necessary ground.
The jockeys’ prize also looks done and dusted, although James Doyle and Oisin Murphy, with three wins apiece, are within two of the current leader, Ryan Moore. They have seven and six rides apiece on today’s card – Grand Providence, Murphy’s booked ride in the last, has been scratched – but Moore has seven too, including several likely favourites, and is much more likely to extend his lead than he is to see it cut.
The early going and weather report from Ascot on day five is very similar to the previous four: good-to-firm ground which was watered overnight, and a warm, dry forecast for the afternoon, albeit with the outside chance of a shower at some point. Tips for today’s seven races are here – back in deficit for the week sadly after a blank day yesterday, but only by a couple of quid – and the action is under way with the Chesham Stakes at 2.30pm.
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