Clemmie could cost me a top hat – but it’s a price worth paying
Aidan O’brien’s filly is my pick for the biggest and best week of the Flat racing calendar
Royal Ascot is the triathlon of TV presenting: from voicing the Royal Procession to covering six live races a day and then hosting the singalong on the bandstand to end ITV’S daily coverage.
The three legs could hardly be more different and all part of the biggest and best week of the year. I go into the meeting in decent tipping form after several Cheltenham Festival successes, the Grand National winner and an each-way second in the Derby at a big price. My nap of the week is that the first song the band plays on Tuesday after racing will be ‘Oh When The Saints’, and here are my other fancies.
Tuesday
The Group Ones come at you like an Anthony Joshua left-right. In the Queen Anne, Yoshida, hopefully named after Southampton’s Japanese centre-half Maya, could scythe down an average bunch of older milers. He has got some outstanding form in America and is worth chancing each-way at 16/1. The head-tohead of the week is the King’s Stand: Battaash vs Lady Aurelia, the world’s two best speedsters. Battaash can get worked up in the preliminaries so if you are backing him, hold fire until he is settled in the stalls.
Wednesday
The meeting’s richest race, the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, sees Cracksman an odds-on favourite but after a lacklustre performance and hard race at Epsom I would take him on. I am hopeful we could see Royal Ascot history made. Sir Michael Stoute is level with Sir Henry Cecil on 75 Royal Ascot winners, his first was Etienne Gerard in the 1977 Jersey Stakes: 41 years later, Poet’s Word could finally break that record.
Thursday
The Gold Cup looks a fine renewal with Order Of St George hoping to regain his crown from 2016. Order Of St George seems unbeatable on soft ground but as it is likely to be quick, he’s opposable. France have won the Gold Cup 15 times and Vazirabad adds spice to the race, but the new kid on the staying block is Stradivarius. He will relish conditions, and nothing lights up Royal Ascot like a Frankie Dettori winner.
Friday
Aidan O’brien knows all about my love for his filly Clemmie. We did a deal that I would sort him out with a new Oliver Brown top hat if she won a big one this summer. All winter I was backing two horses: Tiger Roll in the Cheltenham Cross Country, which my regular readers will know all about, and Clemmie in the 1,000 Guineas. She didn’t make it there but is back in rude health and ready to make up for lost time. She is my bet of the meeting in the Coronation Stakes. No pressure, Aidan.
Saturday
The last day features an Ashes-style clash. It is England vs Australia with Harry Angel vs Redkirk Warrior in the Diamond Jubilee. And it is Ed Chamberlin vs Francesca Cumani as well, because she insists Redkirk Warrior is the real deal, while I am sure the prodigiously talented Harry can do it for England and Saint George. As long as there’s no sandpaper involved, I am sure it will be a great battle.