Royal Ascot 2020 - Day Two






13:15 Silver Royal Hunt Cup Handicap

The Royal Hunt Cup is one of my favourite races of the season and followers of this blog have done well in the race before, this year in addition to the main race we have a consolation race too. 

Ouzo heads the betting at the time of writing and he looks to have an excellent chance based on his seasonal reappearance effort when beaten a neck by Bell Rock at Newmarket. His runs style will be well suited by this contest and he is versatile with regards to ground so he ticks a lot of boxes. Unfortunately he doesn't tick the important value box in terms of a single bet here but I will be adding him to a multiple (read on for more...).

With six places available at a number of bookmakers I'm going to take advantage and back the top weight Sir Busker each-way. He posted a career best RPR when returning to action at Newcastle earlier this month and is another hold-up style runner who will be suited by this race. The form of that race at Newcastle was franked on Sunday when the third, Roger Varian's Fifth Position won stylishly in a class 2 handicap off a mark of 99. His trainer has been amongst the winners in the last week and the booking of Oisin Murphy is an obvious positive.

I'll also have a smaller bet on Almufti for Hugo Palmer and James Doyle, he's been going the right way since his wind op and is well drawn given how day one panned out. The Doyler will tuck his mount in behind and could come with a nice late run like at Lingfield on his penultimate start.

Sir Busker 9/1 - 1 Point Each-Way

Almufti 33/1 - 0.5 Points Each-Way


15:35 Royal Hunt Cup (Heritage Handicap)

A strong bit of form which ties in nicely with the favourite opener is Bell Rock's win at Newmarket earlier this month. Ouzo has a chance to boost the form in the consolation but the sixth and eighth placed horses from the Newmarket contest both ran very well in the Buckingham Palace Handicap on day one. Bell Rock's performance was all the more impressive as he rattled home late on when it had paid to be up with the pace all day.

Connections clearly thought a lot of this horse as he was thrown in the deep end in the Group 1 St James Palace stakes on just his third career start. The gelding operation looks like it has helped release the potential connections have always thought he's had and on just his sixth career start it is highly possible this son of Kingman could take another step forward.

Afaak broke my heart when beating Clon Coulis by a nose in this last year and I'm going to have him onside this time. He is 3lb higher than last year but has a talented apprentice to negate that rise in the weights and he clearly loves it here at Ascot. Importantly, he won't mind any rain, so if the forecast showers arrive it would be no problem at all.


Bell Rock 8/1 - 1 Point Each-Way

Afaak 16/1 - 1 Point Each-Way

Each-Way Double

Ouzo & Bell Rock 44/1 - 0.5 Points Each-Way

SkyBet 6 places and 7 places respectively

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