Day 3 of Royal Ascot 2014 is the day to finally pull up our socks and put those betting boots on.
The calibre of horses is a little bit lower than the opening two days but the quality of competition remains.
The feature race today is the Ascot Gold Cup at 4.25. Last year, this provided the highlight for many with the Queen’s horse Estimate running out a worthy winner. That one is back again to bid for a second Gold. Cup. However, I feel that this race is slightly better than last years and believe that there are two horses who are head and shoulders above the rest. Firstly there is Leading Light from A. O’Briens yard, winner of the Queens Vase here last season as well as the St. Leger, and secondly there is Brown Panther, a horse with a victory at this meeting a couple of years ago and a horse who I believe is destined to be the champion stayer this season.
At 5.00 we see the ultra competitive Britannia Stakes run over the straight mile. Yesterday we saw for the first time that the jockeys all wanted to come to the high number draws and looking at this race, I would imagine that trend will continue. There is plenty of pace in the middle and high sections of the draw and surely this will be run at a fast and furious pace. Therefore it should pay to be tracking the leaders on the stands side and I like the look of Bilimbi in this.
Earlier this season at Newmarket, there was a race Cloudscape won beating Windshear. This race has thrown up a few winners and was run in a decent time. Today sees both of these horses running at Ascot at different levels. Cloudscape is running in a Group 3 and Windshear is in a handicap. I’m expecting both to confirm the merit of that Newmarket form and pick up first place in their respective races.
Don’t forget to get to bet365 and check out their fantastic Royal Ascot offers.
Royal Ascot Day 3 Thursday 19th June
3.05 Cloudscape @ 6/1 with bet365.
4.25 Brown Panther @ 7/1 with bet365.
5.00 Bilimbi @ 14s with bet365.
5.35 Windshear @ 8/1 with bet365.
