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2 months ago
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Good morning. Here’s the run down of the action today:
2.30pm – Queen Anne Stakes (Group 1) 1m
3.05pm - Coventry Stakes (Group 2) 6f
3.40pm - King Charles III Stakes (Group 1) 5f
4.20pm - St James’s Palace Stakes (Group 1) 1m
5.00pm - Ascot Stakes (Handicap) (Class 2) 2m 4f
5.35pm - Wolferton Stakes (Listed) 1m 2f
6.10pm - Copper Horse Stakes (Handicap) (Class 2) 1m 6f
Preamble
Greg Wood
Good morning from Ascot on day one of the 2025 Royal meeting … and what a morning! The sun is out, the temperatures are climbing past 20C already and the best news of all is that the fine weather is looking set for the week.
Royal Ascot’s immutability is one of the wonders of the modern age. Nothing really seems to faze it – whatever the weather, however troubled the times, it keeps on keeping on, just as it always has, despite significant “under the bonnet” changes to the race programme that have seen it expand from four days and 24 races to five days and 35 in only around 20 years.
Tradition is stamped all over it with the permanence of a tattoo, and that includes their insistence on kicking off the week with three of the eight Group One events in the space of the first four races. The Queen Anne Stakes (2.30pm, all times BST), at the top of the card, is a wide-open renewal with two Classic winners from last season in the field, the Australian mare Asfoora is back to attempt a repeat win in the King Charles III Stakes (3.40pm) and the spring’s three major 2,000 Guineas winners are all going to post for the St James’s Palace Stakes at 4.20pm.
The early betting news today is that Henri Matisse, the French 2,000 Guineas winner, is out to 4-1 for the St James’s Palace while Ruling Court, who took the original 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, is solid at 100-30 behind the odds-on favourite, Field Of Gold.
Ryan Moore, meanwhile, starts the week as the odds-on favourite to finish as the meeting’s top jockey for the 12th time in all and the fourth year in a row, while Aidan O’Brien, his main backer, is also odds-on to land the trainers’ title, in his case for the ninth time in 11 years.
The going is good to firm – perfect summer racing ground – and the action on the track is under way at 2.30pm, (or about 1.55pm if you include the royal procession, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year). And you can, as ever, find all the news, views, results, betting and more here on the blog until the crowd are belting out all the old favourites around the bandstand after racing.
