Good morning from Ascot on day two of this year’s royal meeting, when Auguste Rodin, last year’s Derby winner, will be among the star turns as he takes on the mare Inspiral – already the winner of six Group One events – in the feature event, the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes.
Wednesday’s card generally pulls in the lowest crowd of the week, which mainly goes to show that the actual quality of the horses and the racing is not the only consideration for spectators, or even, in some cases, a consideration at all. If you were trying to pick the “best” race of the meeting in terms of the ratings of the horses involved in advance, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes would probably be the percentage call, so perhaps it just feels like less of a day out if you still have two days of work left in the week.
Auguste Rodin is a fascinating favourite for a race like this – he’s currently around 7-4 – because he has a habit of running the occasional, inexplicably bad race. He did it in the King George here last summer and in the Sheema Classic in Dubai in March, but in between, notched up wins in the Irish Champion Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Turf. Inspiral, meanwhile, may be operating at the limit of her stamina, as her win at last year’s Breeders’ Cup was over a much easier 10 furlongs than Ascot’s, and anyone who thinks the market leaders are both vulnerable has plenty of each-way options to pick from.
The early report from the track regarding the weather and going is that there is nothing much to report, which is generally good news for punters. The going remains good-to-firm, 4mm of water went onto the course overnight to maintain the ground, and the forecast is for another dry day.
The big race is off at 4.25pm, and the card is under way with the Queen Mary Stakes, a five-furlong dash for two-year-old fillies, at 2.30pm. Some picks for the seven races are here, and you can, as always, follow all the action as it happens here on the blog, all the way through to the last race, the Windsor Castle Stakes, at 6.15pm.