Royal Ascot Race-By-Race Preview Day Four: The stage is set for the fillies as the Coronation Stakes
The Coronation Stakes is the undoubted highlight of Friday’s Ascot card, says Andrew Hughes, who runs through that and every other race here…
2:30 Albany Stakes
Another of those huge Ascot fields as a couple of dozen two-year-old fillies spread out across the broad straight. The pace will be frenetic, but as a six furlong contest, the Albany doesn’t place quite such a high premium on pure speed as yesterday’s Norfolk Stakes. This is undoubtedly a classy race and though it is only a Group Three, it is at least as strong as, if not stronger, than the Group Two Queen Mary Stakes. Form is pretty thin on the ground, as you might imagine and it offers quite a test for punters as you will need to weigh up the merits of some extremely lightly raced fillies.
3:05 King Edward VII Stakes
This Group Two is confined to the classic generation and run over a mile-and-a-half. It was once known as ‘The Ascot Derby‘ and is a grand old contest. Many of these horses will have taken in one of the Derby trials and possibly even the Derby itself. However, the record of horses that ran at Epsom earlier in the month is not great and it might be better to concentrate on horses with stamina-laden pedigrees stepping up in trip for the first time.
3:45 Coronation Stakes
Without a doubt, the highlight of Friday’s card. A high class Group One run over a mile, it is the fillies’ equivalent of the St James’ Palace Stakes and is just as prestigious. There looks like being a good field going to post this year and plenty of high class form for punters to peruse. As usual, it is a field made up of Guineas contenders and given the top quality nature of the race it is unlikely that any filly not thought good enough to be entered in at least one of the Guineas races will be worth considering. At the head of the market currently are the 1,000 Guineas winner Ghanaati [3.25] and Poule d’Essai des Pouliches victor Elusive Wave [4.0]
4:20 Wolferton Handicap
This is a 10 furlong Listed event that was added to the Royal Meeting in 2002 and has been steadily growing more competitive each year. Trainers are increasingly targeting this keenly contested handicap and so you should be looking out for unexposed or progressive types who can improve dramatically on what they have shown so far. A tricky one for punters to weight up, it has thrown up some big priced winners over the last seven years.
4:55 Queen’s Vase
A Group Three contest that is confined to three-year-olds and run over two miles. This staying distance on such a galloping course is a gruelling test for such relatively young horses and you should obviously be looking to rule out those who have not shown or are not likely to show the necessary stamina and endurance to stay on terms at the finish. Henry Cecil has saddled the winner of this race an astonishing eight times, but the last of those was Endorsement in 1999 and it has been the likes of Mark Johnston and Sir Michael Stoute who have tasted most success here in recent times.
5:30 Buckingham Palace Stakes
Another of those big field epics at the Royal Meeting to close Friday’s action. This ever popular betting event is a Heritage Handicap and is run over the in-between distance of seven furlongs. Punters will give themselves brain fatigue trying to second guess which side of the straight course is riding the fastest, a task made harder by such imponderable factors as watering and the effect of the shade thrown by the Ascot Grandstand.
But it is likely to be far more profitable to focus on where the pace in the race is likely to be, and to concentrate on those horses which are able to hold their own in the hurly burly of a big field charge. It could also pay to avoid pure sprinters over the seven furlongs as they may find themselves running out of gas over the last hundred yards.
As with the Wolferton, there have been some big priced winners of this race.
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