4.20pm JERSEY STAKES preview
A familiar mix in the Jersey of runners dropping back in trip and class after failing to measure up in a Guineas, and progressive, lightly-raced types that may improve past them on their way to betting things.Ya Mo Be there, BeneventoandSeagulls Elevenallran in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, finishing eighth, 10thand last of 11 respectively, butCalifornia Dreameris definitely a runner on his formin the Irish equivalent, where he outran odds of 50-1 to finish second, withComanche Brave,today’s favourite, back in fifth. The obvious potential improvers, meanwhile, areMarvelman,for the Andrew Balding/Oisin Murphy combo, and Owen Burrows’sRemmooz,who made a successful racecourse debut in April and then followed up in a novice at Doncaster earlier this month.
SELECTION:REMMOOZ
3.40 QUEEN ELIZABETH II JUBILEE STAKES preview
A truly international renewal of the final day’s feature event, which brings together the best sprinting form lines from France, Britain, Asia and Australia in a six-furlong dash on fast racing ground.Timeform’sratings haveLazzat,who is very weak in the market so far today, at the top of the pile, a couple of pounds ahead ofInisherin,last year’s Commonwealth Cup winner, andTopgear,an impressive winner – over seven furlongs - at Longchamp last time, withSatono ReveandFlora Of Bermudaa further 1lb behind. The races to consider most closely when weighing up the likely winner include the Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin in December, the Prix du Palais-Royal at Longchamp last month and the Duke Of York at York, also last month, and while I’m very hopeful thatSatono Revewill get a first ever Japanese victory at the Royal meeting on the board, it is a wide-open race and feels every bit as competitive as the Wokingham Handicap over the same trip later on the card.
SELECTION:SATONO REVE.
Hong Kong Sprint,Sha Tin, 8 Dec 24 (Satono Reve).https://youtu.be/OgaXbSrOgAI?si=h6q9LgS9vwUPqWut
Chairman’s Sprint,Sha Tin 27 Apr 25 (Satono Reve).https://youtu.be/7MB7qsFCdMs?si=0e_Vc66LbLN97XV8
Prix Maurice Du Gheest,Deauville 4 Aug 24 (Lazzat, Flora Of Bermuda, Great Generation).https://youtu.be/cUJoEzW8jG8?si=eTbGE4qI6P4zLMP4
Duke Of York Stakes,York 14 May 25 (Inisherin, Flora Of Bermuda, Elite Status).https://youtu.be/mbAGWEG1u00?si=aR8P91j4RPcnOwhi
Commonwealth Cup,Ascot 21 Jun 24 (Inisherin).https://youtu.be/Heqsk-110Xs?si=XpAlzMhwHLBBfGqf
San Domenico Stakes,Rosehill 31 Aug 24 (Storm Boy)https://youtu.be/MpZHfAS5cEw?si=x0EI1VGoTyupy2GL
Golden Rose,Rosehill, 28 Sept 24 (Storm Boy).https://youtu.be/zboFBQIG63Y?feature=shared
Prix du Palais-Royal,Longchamp 25 May 25 (Topgear, Sajir).https://youtu.be/CY3BVSUZNHw?si=ilknivsfyiGLeIqq
British Champions Sprint Stakes,Ascot, 19 Oct 24 (Flora Of Bermuda, James’s Delight, Elite Status)https://youtu.be/0knDGLoOR9o?feature=shared
3.05pm HARDWICKE STAKES preview
Winning a single Group One race is a huge and very rare achievement for any thoroughbred. Winning seven is extraordinary and yet,Rebel’s Romancerarely seems to get the credit that his record deserves, perhaps because his seven top-level wins were recorded in Germany, Hong Kong, Dubai and the US, where he is a dual winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf. He will be fancied to make a Group One breakthrough in Britain in next month’s King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, having been a solid third in the same race last season, and will be looking to set himself up for that with a win here over the same course and distance.
Comments about Charlie Appleby’s form at the meeting in relation to Treanmor in the preceding Chesham Stakes apply equally to Rebel’s Romance, but he looks a very solid favourite back at his ideal trip after his class got him home over 14 furlongsin last month’s Yorkshire Cup.Joseph O’Brien’sAl Riffa,blinkered for the first time today, is his main rival according toTimeformratings, and he is also a multiple Group One winner having taken the National Stakes as a juvenile and the Grosser Preis von Berlin at Hoppegarten last August. He was last seen finishing a three-length fourth behind Sosie, the current favourite for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe,in the Prix Ganay at Longchamp.
SELECTION:REBEL’S ROMANCE
2.30pm CHESHAM STAKES preview
Aidan O’Brien has won five of the last nine runnings of this race, and two of those wins were with fillies that won the same Leopardstown maiden thatMoments Of Joy,his only runner this year,took just over a fortnight ago. That clearly makes her a major player, but she is not the favourite, as Godolphin’s main trainer, Charlie Appleby, has picked this race out as the next step forTreanmor,an eye-wateringly expensive yearling at last October’s sales who made short work of his fieldon debut at Newmarketlast month. Appleby has been having a difficult time of it so far this week, drawing a blank with 10 runners so far, and in fact at the Royal meeting full stop in recent seasons. His last winner here was the 33-1 shotNaval Crownon the final day in 2022, and his last 36 Royal runners, including a 5-4 favourite and two at 6-4, have all been beaten. It’s fair to say he could do with a change of fortune.
Another runner who deserves a mention isHumidity,not least as he is a full brother toHolloway Boy,the 40-1 winner of this race in 2022. That, unusually for a Royal winner, was Holloway Boy’s racecourse debut, but his bro has had a run, scraping home by a short-head in a maiden at Newbury before being sold to the ever-expanding Wathnan Racing operation.
SELECTION: TREANMOR
The going for day five of is, surprise surprise,Good to Firm
GoingStick (the higher the figure the faster the ground) at 8.30am:Stands’ side: 8.8Centre: 8.5Far side: 8.8Round: 7.4The jockeys switched sides yesterday so, as Tom Collins pointed out on ITV Racing this morning, it’s difficult to gauge which side of the track will be favoured. That’s not much help but it’s the honest answer!Non-runners
3.40pm Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (Group 1)6 James’s Delight (unsuitable ground)
5.00pm Wokingham Stakes (Heritage Handicap)8 Symbol Of Honour ( temperature)
5.35pm Golden Gates Stakes15 The King’s Falcon (bad scope)
Good morning. And after yesterday’s sojourn toAscotin my finery (of which more later) here’s the run down of today’s action and after ginving you the going and non-runner details I will start publishing Greg Wood’s previews of all the races.
2.30pm- Chesham Stakes (7f)3.05pm- Hardwicke Stakes (1m 4f)3.40pm- Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (6f)4.20pm- Jersey Stakes (7f)5.00pm- Wokingham Stakes (Heritage Handicap) (6f)5.35pm- Golden Gates Stakes (Handicap) (1m 2f)6.10pm- Queen Alexandra Stakes (2m 6f)
Welcome back toAscoton the fifth bright, warm morning in a row at this year’s Royal meeting, on a day when the biggest crowd of the week might just witness a moment of racing history in the afternoon’s feature event, the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (3.40pm).
Japan has become one of global racing’s powerhouses over the last quarter of a century, winning major races on all continents and often bringing plenty of travelling fans along for the ride. Their record atRoyal Ascot, however, and in fact, at Ascot full stop, is a tale of woe, with the occasional near-miss along the way.
Agnes World, the first Japanese-trained runner at the meeting, finished second, beaten just over a length, in what was then the Group Two King’s Stand Stakes, when he was giving weight to his 22 rivals (and in his next race, won the Group One July Cup, the summer sprinting championship). One of his stable companions finished 22ndin the same race, and since then, only one of 10 runners from Japan has even reached the first five (Shahryar, in the 2022 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes).
In Noriyuki Hori’sSatono Reve,though, the country has one of its strongest contenders for years, and riding legend Joao Moreira has flown in to take the reins. The six-year-old has form that puts him within a length or two of Ka Ying Rising, the top-rated sprinter in global racing, and has been given plenty of time to get used to his new surroundings having arrived in Newmarket in early May.
I think he could be the horse to finally break Japan’s duck here, and the market seems to agree as he has been backed from 9-2 to 5-2 favourite this morning.Inisherin,last year’s winner of the Commonwealth Cup here, is next in on 9-2, and in a truly international field, two French-trained runners,LazzatandTopgear,are next in at 5-1 and 6-1 respectively.
TheJersey Stakes(4.20pm), for three-year-olds over seven furlongs, and theHardwicke Stakes, over a mile-and-a-half and a race that has often been a stepping stone to the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes here in July, are the main supporting races on today’s card, along with the ever-popularWokingham Handicapat 5pm.
The going remains good-to-firm all over after further watering last night, and temperatures are expected to climb towards 30C as the afternoon goes on, which should ensure that the track is bursting at the seams by the time the royal procession makes its way down the track just before 2pm. The attendance has been up on every day of the meeting so far – it was an 8% jump on Friday – and there is every chance the course will complete a full house today, for the second year in a row.
John & Thady Gosden are tied at five apiece in the race to be top trainer, Oisin Murphy is just two wins behind Ryan Moore after taking the last race here on Friday and you can follow all the action and slings and arrows of outrageous fortune as the 2025 Royal meeting draws to a close right here on the Guardian’s live blog.