Racing Chat - Tuesday June 20th (Inc. Ascot Day 1)

[BillyHills]

Had a look at the Ascot card on day 1 of the festival and it looks a tremendous set of races with something for everyone. A couple of shorties in the Group 1's , a big sprint, a staying handicap and a couple of 2yo contests.

I suppose the Ribchester, Churchill double will decide what sort of a day the bookies are going to have, I can see these two being doubled up all over the country. For my money Churchill looks the most likely of the pair. I have him 32pts clear in the ratings compared to 16 for Ribchester.

In the King's Stand last years winner Profitable comes out on top, basically its because he never runs a bad race and its very difficult to assess races in France properly. He's big enough at 16/1 but not a betting race for me.

The only handicap on day one is the 2m4f Ascot Stakes. It looks wide open to me. Magic Circle tops the figures and I do like the booking of Silvestre De Sousa here in place of Fran Berry. He was never at the races here last year in the Queen Alexandre but a good 5th at Chester recently reads well. Jump trainers have a far record in this and you may need to look out for Messrs Mullins, Pipe, Nicholls, Henderson and King!

That leaves the two 2yo races and to be honest anyone horse could with either of them if the juvenile form is anything to go by this season. I've lost count of the amount of 2yo hot pots that have been turned over since April and it doesn't surprise me to see that I have Irish horses at the top of my ratings for both races. Brother Bear (Coventry) and T For Tango (Windsor Castle) are the sporting nominations but I wont hold my breath.

 

Ribchester/Churchill Double (Just over 2/1 Skybet)

5.00: Magic Circle EW 12/1 Skybet

[BillyHills]

740 Brighton:

Lunar Deity NAP 5/6 Betfair
Decent AW performer but was well backed at Yarmouth two starts back, could only manage third that day but made no mistake last time out when bolting up by 10 lengths. That was an apprentice handicap so gets to run off the same mark here and will be very hard to beat in that sort of form.