Royal Ascot day five: Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, news and more – live

Good morning from Ascot on the fifth and final day of the royal meeting, as what is expected to be the biggest crowd of the week is starting to assemble for a card which has something for everyone.

The Hardwicke Stakes at 3.05pm includes both a Classic winner – Continuous – and a very live runner in the royal colours in Desert Hero, the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at 3.45pm and the Wokingham Handicap at 5.05pm are terrific betting heats, and the two-and-three-quarter mile Queen Alex at the end of the card is, well, as endearingly oddball as always.

The only thing missing, in fact, is any real sense of drama or narrative about the races to be the top trainer and jockey at the meeting. Aidan O’Brien has had everything bar a pinkie finger on the trainers’ prize since the middle of day three, and could take the day off today and still finish comfortably clear thanks to this five winners already. No one else has managed more than two, and of those, only Karl Burke has runners in enough races to have even a million-to-one chance of making up the necessary ground.

The jockeys’ prize also looks done and dusted, although James Doyle and Oisin Murphy, with three wins apiece, are within two of the current leader, Ryan Moore. They have seven and six rides apiece on today’s card – Grand Providence, Murphy’s booked ride in the last, has been scratched – but Moore has seven too, including several likely favourites, and is much more likely to extend his lead than he is to see it cut.

The early going and weather report from Ascot on day five is very similar to the previous four: good-to-firm ground which was watered overnight, and a warm, dry forecast for the afternoon, albeit with the outside chance of a shower at some point. Tips for today’s seven races are here – back in deficit for the week sadly after a blank day yesterday, but only by a couple of quid – and the action is under way with the Chesham Stakes at 2.30pm.