Royal Ascot 2021 - Day 1



Back again! I’ve decided to only post previews for the big festivals on here now, I suppose they don’t get much bigger than the royal meeting in June. A busy week at Ascot ahead so I’ve left out the last two races on day one where I didn’t have a big opinion, but there’s still a good deal to get stuck into and I will try and post a preview for at least a couple of races every day this week.


14:30 - Queen Anne Stakes (Group 1) 1m

Palace Pier is a very short price for the curtain raiser here but deservedly so. He won at the royal meeting last year in impressive fashion and although he was disappointing over course and distance later in the season (the only defeat of his career), he has bounced straight back to winning ways on both starts this year. He’s 5lb clear of the field on official ratings and should really be winning this if running up to form.

Therefore in terms of a bet in the opener I’ll be looking to play each-way and in the betting w/o favourite markets. LORD GLITTERS has featured on this blog countless times before and I can’t desert him back at a track which he has run well at so many times before. Coming from off the pace is just the run style you need on the straight mile at Ascot and despite being 8 years old now, he has been running well using those tactics out in Dubai this year. David O’Meara’s charge finished a good 12 lengths behind the favourite at Newbury last month but was left with plenty to do and ran much worse in that race in 2019 when he went on to win this contest, hopefully he’ll be ridden to pick up the pieces again and if the favourite underperforms he may well finish in front. BLESS HIM is another who tends to run here at Ascot with a run style which suits so well. He caught the eye at Lingfield on his penultimate start, a course which wouldn’t suit him well, before finishing second behind Palace Pier at Sandown last time out. It’s difficult to envisage him overturning the favourite but in the betting without markets he looks a bit of value, back under his favoured conditions of fast ground and a straight track.

LORD GLITTERS 22/1 

BLESS HIM (Betting Without Palace Pier) 16/1 


15:05 - Coventry Stakes (Group 2) 6f

Two year-old races are exactly my usual preference of betting medium but I’m happy to have a couple of small bets on this particular race with many firms offering extra places for each-way bets. Wesley Ward brings over Kaufymaker from the states and could prove tough to beat in receipt of a fillies allowance. However, with the extra places on offer I’ll be looking for something at a bigger price. BERKSHIRE SHADOW fits the bill, he did well to win after missing the kick on debut and won in a fairly decent time. The form of that race hasn’t worked out amazingly well but the yard’s two year olds tend to take a good step forward on their second start and he’s likely to be ridden patiently by Oisin Murphy which should further help his cause.

Another I will be having a very small bet on is EBRO RIVER. The son of Galileo Gold is an absolute nutter, who looked an absolute sweaty mess when I was on course at Sandown a couple of weeks back, but despite that, racing keenly AND hanging across the track in the closing stages, he won comfortably by over 3 lengths. If he can settle a bit better (this bigger field may help) a sounder surface may bring out even more improvement for Hugo Palmer’s colt.

BERKSHIRE SHADOW 20/1

EBRO RIVER 10/1



15:40 - King’s Stand Stakes (Group 1) 5f

This race revolves mainly around Battaash because if he arrives here and shows all the ability he has, then everything else is playing for place money. However, I very rarely back anything as short as 2/1 and there are enough niggling doubts that I won’t be making an exception for Charlie Hills runner here. He suffered a fracture since we last saw him and has had his issues with Ascot in the past, although finally won here last year. Another year older and with injury concerns there’s enough to make me want to look elsewhere for a bet.

I backed American raider Extravagant Kid earlier in the week but his price has crashed over the weekend so instead I’ll have a small each-way play on LIBERTY BEACH with many firms offering extra places again. She finished 3rd behind the favourite in this contest last year and did well to win on her seasonal reappearance at Haydock on ground that wouldn’t have seen her to best effect. Provided that run hasn’t taken too much out of her, John Quinn’s filly is still only four and given that her sire’s top three career performances on RPRs came at the age of four, there’s a chance we still haven’t seen the best of her yet.

LIBERTY BEACH 10/1 


16:20 - St James’s Palace Stakes (Group 1) 1m

Aidan O’Brien reaches for first time headgear on all three of his runners here with all of them starting the season pretty disappointingly. Jim Bolger hasn’t had such problems with his three year olds this year, landing both the English and Irish guineas, the former with Poetic Flare who lines up here. Since landing the guineas he’s run creditably on both occasions on ground he probably wouldn’t have enjoyed as much as today’s. It would be an obvious concern that he has had a lot of racing in a short space of time but he does seem to be thriving on it. He’s the obvious one as he is currently favourite but I can’t help but feel he’d be shorter price if a more household name was his trainer. 

Overall, this race doesn’t look massively tempting from a betting point of view but I may end up chancing LUCKY VEGA if I do have a bet. He ran a blinder in the 1000 guineas finishing only half a length behind Poetic Flare but is double the price of that rival at the time of writing. His 4th in the Irish version next time out can be marked up too, given there was definitely a pace bias favouring those who raced more prominently on that occasion.

LUCKY VEGA 15/2


17:00 - Ascot Stakes (Handicap) 2m4f

Willie Mullins runners often get a lot of attention in the betting ring in this contest and rightly so given he has won 3 of the last 6 renewals. That said, the ship seems to have sailed with his ‘first string’ given M C Muldoon is as short as 4/1 at the time of writing. In the context of this race that is too short for me so I’m siding with a double figure price in the shape of JUST HUBERT. He ran far better than I expected on his seasonal debut on bottomless ground at Haydock when finishing third. In fact, despite the fact he would much prefer better ground, he recorded a career best RPR on that run. Still unexposed over these longer trips, having won his only start over two and a half miles, he looks a good each-way bet on ground he will really enjoy. Remember to shop around for best place terms on all your bets this week!

JUST HUBERT 11/1

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