The best meeting of the year bar Cheltenham of course and I am going to be stuck behind a desk for the next few days undertaking an annual company audit which I couldn’t get out of, typical!
As an accountant I have to keep my clients happy and I can usually do this without it impacting on my racing but alas not this time unfortunately my top hat and tails will have to stay locked away for another year I am afraid!
However it is not going to stop me watching the racing live on the TV and I have pre-planned with military precision a way of doing just this without he says hopefully anyone being none the wiser!
The cards at the Royal meeting are to die for and I will certainly be making a number of investments over the course of the week and you can follow who will be carrying my money as the lovely people at Race Advisor have asked me to make a daily contribution which I am more than happy to do.
As is to be expected at such a prestigious competitive meeting winners are going to be hard to find but I am quietly confident of making a profit over the course of the week and have a couple that I really fancy so I hope that you will stick with me and follow my daily selections.
I will be publishing the top 2 system rated runners in each race along with my price guide for the selected horses and will also be adding a few notes with some reasoning behind the selections and an autopsy of the previous days racing and how my selections fared.
Hopefully you will find this informative but more importantly profitable so without any further ado let’s crack on and my selections for day 1 of Royal meeting.
Date Time Meeting Horse Odds (Dec) Odds (Frac)
16/06/2015 14:30 ASCOT ABLE FRIEND 3.76 11/4
16/06/2015 14:30 ASCOT SOLOW 3.76 11/4
16/06/2015 15:05 ASCOT AIR FORCE BLUE 8.63 15/2
16/06/2015 15:05 ASCOT ROUND TWO 9.11 8/1
16/06/2015 15:40 ASCOT SOLE POWER 8.13 7/1
16/06/2015 15:40 ASCOT MECCAS ANGEL 9.44 8/1
16/06/2015 16:20 ASCOT GLENEAGLES 2.80 7/4
16/06/2015 16:20 ASCOT CONSORT 4.37 10/3
16/06/2015 17:00 ASCOT SHWAIMAN 13.10 12/1
16/06/2015 17:00 ASCOT BOITE 13.10 12/1
16/06/2015 17:35 ASCOT WASHINGTON DC 10.39 9/1
16/06/2015 17:35 ASCOT SOAPY AITKEN 11.84 10/1
The opener is a race to savour but will be a watching brief for me as I can’t split the unbeaten pair Able Friend and Solow who lock horns here. Both get an identical ratings but slight preference based upon the price (3/1 best price as I write this) is for Able Friend so he is the tentative selection here.
In the Coventry Stakes the favourite Round Two gets a good rating but his price is atrocious and I couldn’t back him at those odds. However he is not the top rated runner in the race and I shall be having a small wager on the Aiden O’Brien trained Air Force Blue.
The King Stand Stake at 3.40 brings together the best sprinters in the game and my old favourite Sole Power lines up and is rightly favourite for this as he defends his crown. He gets top rating from me but this is ultra-competitive and like Round Two in the previous race represents little value. Sole Power is no spring chicken and I am therefore going to side with the Michael Dods trained young pretender Meccas Angel who has improved with each race and is one to keep on the right side of. The ground is a slight concern as he would prefer softer but he has won on good ground in the past and I am therefore hopeful that a new champion will be crowned here.
I can’t look any further than the dual Guineas winner Gleneagles in the St.Jame’s Palace Stakes but I don’t like to back odds on so although I can’t see him getting beaten his price does nothing for me so I will watch this race with interest.
The Ascot Stakes marathon is wide open as the betting suggests 7/1 the field but the two however I will be concentrating on are Shwaiman and Boite who both score identical ratings from me and who are available at prices in excess of the 12/1 that I am looking for. Both have been plying their trade over hurdles recently although Boite did have an encouraging run on the flat at Goodwood recently and if pushed he would be my slight preference here however Shwaiman eighth in last year’s Gold Cup is in my opinion quite well treated and therefore definitely enters the equation and I will be backing them both each way here.
I do like Washington DC in the day one finale but am seriously worried about the draw and at the odds is not one to get carried away with. I also like the chances of Soapy Atkins but again both the draw and his price are not appealing. I will therefore watch the market before making a decision whether to invest or not in this race but I can’t see me getting the prices I am looking for so in honesty will probably leave the race alone.
SELECTIONS
15.05 Ascot Air Force Blue 1 point each way
15.40 Ascot Meccas Angel 1 point each way
17.05 Ascot Boite 1 point each each way
17.05 Ascot Shwaiman 1 point each way
Interesting. My system agrees with Air Force Blue but Mecca’s Angel is only fourth and I am behind Sole Power in the 15:40 race. 17:00 race is out of the picture due to low amount of reference races in my db for thar kind of race.
Based on times I do not understand why Buratino is not the number 1 selection in the 2 y o race unless a 4 seconds slower race in Ireland is better than a race at Epsom ????
Michael your thoughts on Buratino were totally justified and he won like a very good animal indeed and one to keep on the right side of. I trust you had your money down and collected a nice pay day?