Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Royal Ascot 2010 - Thursday

Thursday is Ladies' Day and the feature on Ladies' Day is the Ascot Gold Cup run over two and half miles. Aidan O'Brien's Yeats has been something of a standing dish winning the previous four runnings but the great horse is in retirement now and the race has an unusually open look to it. Henry Cecil's Manifest is the market leader but at the prices he doesn't really make much appeal. Ballydoyle run Age Of Aquarius but the yard hasn't been in the best of form and this colt doesn't look certain to get the trip. Sir Michael Stoute is on record as saying this is a stiff ask for Ask on his first run of the season - Kieren Fallon has a good word for the horse in today's Weekender. Kasbah Bliss was beaten three quarters of a length by Frankie Dettori's mount Kite Wood the last time at Longchamp; connections will fancy their chances of reversing that form over another four and a half furlongs, although at the age of eight many will feel the best years are behind Francois Doumen's charge. There was a time I was sure a Cheltenham World Hurdle would come the way of this one but Inglis Drever and Big Buck's had different ideas.

Question marks surround many of the market principals so I'm tempted to look elsewhere although that approach hasn't served me at all well so far this meeting. John Dunlop's Akmal likes to race from the front and wouldn't be without a chance especially if he's given a soft lead. Akmal and Tastahil (just beaten in the Chester Cup from a poor draw) are officially rated on the same mark. Granted, Akmal receives two pounds here, yet the books have John Dunlop's gelding at 12/1 while Barry Hills' charge is 66/1! Hills' son Richard prefers to ride the Dunlop horse (I assume he would have opted for his father's horse if he thought it good enough); that being the case I'll chance an each-way wager on Akmal.

1 comment:

GeeDee said...

Each-way selection Akmal (16/1) led to five furlongs out where he was badly hampered and that was the end of that... A surprise result here with Dermot Weld's Rite Of Passage (20/1) holding Age Of Aquarius (8/1) a neck on the line. On this evidence it looks as though AoA does stay two and a half miles.