Queen Anne Stakes
Toronado appears highly vulnerable at 4-5 favourite not having raced in approximately 300 days in a race that is unforgiving as callous gods to season debutants. Wise guy selection and second in the market is the ex-American Verrazano at an unattractive 4-1, therefore will go here with the french entry ANODIN 12-1 trained by F. Head, who has won this race before with Goldikova. 4 year olds have a strong record in the Queen Anne and Anodin\'s only race in 2014 was a second to the unrelenting veteran Cirrus des Aigles.
Queen Mary Stakes
The WOW SIGNAL (6-1) was purchased by al-Shaqab operation after winning his maiden by excessive margins on 21.5.14. historically, horses with one career race/one career win have done well in this ode to Queen Mary. Whilst this Quinn trained Second favourite in the market has received adulation from various men of importance, he still carries a reasonable price.
King\'s Stand Stakes
Irish (pseudo?) genius Aiden O\'Brien has never won this 5 furlong sprint before, he enters 3 year old GUERRE (9-1), who in his first race of 2014 defeated the intelligent old Maarek . With their mandated weight advantage 3 year olds have a concrete-solid history in this race, on numerous occasions drinking the victory nectar of Bellerophon, Guerre is also ridden by the best in his field of labour, Ryan Moore.
St.James Palace Stakes
Kingman (10-11) looks unsuscepitble to regicide here, an emphatically deserving favourite. Nevertheless, must tip Godolphin\'s 2013 breeders cup juvenile turf mile winnder OUTSTRIP (25-1), based on the sheet for him I have imagined in my mind\'s eye.
Now I have approximately 2 hours to determine in what horizontal combinations (place accumulator, each-way ?) I will bet these selections...
Good luck to anyone playing Ascot today
Appreciate your insights, Wesley Ward brought a string and won with his first who was in the easiest heat, today\'s runner was in deeper and didn\'t run on: http://www1.skysports.com/horse-racing/news/12426/9344416/wesley-ward-has-strong-team-for-royal-ascot
If you have time, please post more thoughts on the remainder of this great meet.
More great writing, please!
1st race Friday: Ward has Sunset Glow:
\"Sunset Glow won a really beautiful race at Belmont on Friday, she\'s a really hardy filly and she will go for the Albany Stakes. I don\'t think the trip will take any toll on her. In fact, she may even improve.\"
A main contender may be:
Sexy Legs tackles the Albany Stakes for the potent David Wachman and Wayne Lordan axis, having just been denied by Jeanne Girl in a Curragh maiden that also threw up Wednesday\'s stylish Queen Mary victor, Anthem Alexander.
If she improves, she would have as good a chance as any, with the American filly Sunset Glow possibly the main threat.
- See more at: http://www.independent.ie/sport/horse-racing/royal-ascot/my-titania-can-return-oxx-to-big-time-at-royal-ascot-30370030.html#sthash.nNDLjrmN.dpuf
Per UK betting website:
The Albany Stakes is traditionally a strong race for juvenile fillies and Friday\'s renewal looks set to be another competitive contest (Channel 4, 2.30pm). The six furlong sprint kicks off the action on day four of the Royal Ascot meeting and Wesley Ward\'s American raider Sunset Glow is vying for favouritism for her first start on British soil this week.
Ward has sent across a strong team to the Royal Ascot meeting and he will be hoping that Sunset Glow, who is a 9/2 favourite with PaddyPower, can land the Group Three spoils. The daughter of Exchange Rate was beaten on debut but she bounced back to win at Belmont over the minimum distance and now steps up to six furlongs for the first time.
Sunset Glow will bid to improve the poor record of favourites in the Albany though as only three favourites have won the twelve renewals of this race since it was added to the Royal Ascot racecard in 2002. A couple of race trends might also count against the unbeaten Patience Alexander, who has made a fetching start to her two-year-old campaign for David Evans, winning a maiden at Windsor before getting the better of Tiggy Wiggy in a Listed race at York last time . The form of that most recent outing on the Knavesmire has worked out quite nicely as Tiggy Wiggy was seen finishing runner-up in the Queen Mary at Royal Ascot on Wednesday afternoon and Patience Alexander is an 11/2 shot for the Albany. However, it is worth noting that 11 of the 12 Albany victors had contested a maiden last time out and six of those had been making only their second start of the season.
Those trends would appear to suit the claims of Malabar, who could offer each-way value at 25/1 with PaddyPower.com. The daughter of Raven\'s Pass was a beaten favourite on debut at Haydock but she was slightly unlucky that day as she was hampered in the latter stages of the race, eventually finishing runner up. She demands respect as the sole entry of Mick Channon, who has garnered a great reputation for producing quality two year olds for Royal Ascot and he has a close affinity with the Albany. Channon has won this race three times so far, including a 1-2 in 2003 when Silca\'s Gift got the better of Tolzey, and two of those winners had come from starting prices of 40/1 and 16/1. Furthermore, four of Channon\'s other nine runners in this race have finished in the first-six home and Malabar could be worth a look to enhance that record.
Meanwhile, Martyn Meade\'s Bazzana was beaten on debut at Newmarket before landing a maiden at Windsor and the Zebedee filly is a 9/1 shot, while Richard Fahey\'s Bonds Girl (12/1) is putting a two-race unbeaten record on the line following her success over five furlongs at Beverley and over six furlongs at Pontefract. Roger Varian\'s Kempton maiden winner Cursory Glance can be backed at 12/1 and she should enjoy a step up in trip.
Richard Hannon has trained two winners of the Albany since 2004 and he goes with Osaila, who was beaten on debut over five furlongs at Nottingham a couple of weeks ago. Elsewhere, Godolphin boast two entries for Friday\'s curtain-raiser as Charlie Appleby\'s Bitter Lake, a winner on soft ground over six furlongs at Newmarket, can be backed at 10/1 with PaddyPower Bookmakers and Saeed Bin Suroor\'s Elite Gardens is an 11/1 shot following her successful debut over five furlongs at Newmarket.