Last year’s race
Kyprios
Winner: Kyprios
Jockey: Ryan L Moore
Trainer: Aidan P O'Brien
Owner: Moyglare/Magnier/Tabor/Smith/Westerberg
Age: 4 Weight: 9st 3lbs
Starting Price: 13/8
Season Form Figures: 11
Previous Best: 1st - Saval Beg Levmoss Stakes (Group 3), Leopardstown (May 2022)
Last year’s race
Magical Lagoon
Winner: Magical Lagoon
Jockey: Shane Foley
Trainer: Jessica Harrington
Owner: Zhang Yuesheng
Age: 3 Weight: 9st 2lbs
Starting Price: 11/4
Season Form Figures: 2
Previous Best: 2nd - Salsabil Stakes (Listed), Navan (April 2022)
Oaks runners have a fair record given how few fillies have contested both prizes turning out again relatively quickly, recording seven wins since 1997.
Last year’s race
Secret State
Winner: Secret State
Jockey: William Buick
Trainer: Charlie Appleby
Owner: Godolphin
Age: 3 Weight: 9st 6lbs
Starting Price: 4/1
Season Form Figures: 211
Previous Best: 1st - Class 5 Novice, Nottingham (May 2022)
Last Year's Race
Winner: The Ridler
Jockey: Paul Hanagan
Trainer: Richard A Fahey
Owner: Mr Steve Bradley
Age: 2 Weight: 9st 3lbs
Starting Price: 50/1
Season Form Figures: 413
Previous Best: 3rd - bet365 Two Year Old Trophy Conditions Stakes, Beverley (May 2022)
The Ridler pulled off a 50/1 surprise last season, thus extending the poor record of the favourite. South Central back in 2008 was the last successful market leader.
A winner at 1 1/4 miles as a 2-year-old, Dillian has had a career geared toward stamina.
The foundation in longer races can result in a first career win in Australia in a handicap at 1 3/16 miles at Canterbury Park on Tuesday evening.
Dillian was winless in four starts in stakes at distances ranging from 1 1/4 miles to 1 15/16 miles in Britain and France in 2021 and 2022.
In his Australian debut, the 4-year-old Dillian closed from last of 11 to finish sixth in a one-mile handicap at Warwick Farm Racecourse on May 17 in his first start since late November.
On his best day, the 4-year-old colt Luxembourg is unbeatable in major stakes in Europe, which is why he is a slight favorite to win Wednesday’s Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.
The trouble is not every race day is Luxembourg’s day. He won the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes last September at Leopardstown, but was seventh in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe a month later in Paris.
My first selection comes in the opening race, which could set the tone for the week. Charlie Appleby hasn't been operating at his usual high strike rate but things are looking up this month, so I think MODERN GAMES can win the Queen Anne Stakes for Godolphin's main trainer. He's a dual Breeders’ Cup winner who has been as good as ever this season, as his latest win at Newbury showed. He managed to win the Lockinge despite the runner-up trying to bite him, and I think he'll have the teeth to see off his rivals here.
I will start with the week’s banker in HIGHFIELD PRINCESS in the King’s Stand Stakes, whose recent runner-up effort in the same Duke Of York Stakes that she won last year, before notching up a Group 1 hat-trick, suggesting she is back to her peak. Her mares’ allowance comfortably puts her ahead on the numbers and makes her the one they all have to beat.
As the Ashes series gets underway, it’s not just Ben Stokes who will be playing a few sporting shots. Royal Ascot gives punters the chance to follow really good horses, often at very decent prices, and I like to try and spank one into the stands on occasions myself. This list, the main four horses of note for me this week, are a mixture of conventional and more 'out there' suggestions, but I'm hoping to get a great run out of each of them.
The collection of Grade 1 and Group 1 wins comprises two Breeders’ Cup races, a Grade 1 race in Canada, and Group 1 races in Britain and France.
The 4-year-old colt Modern Games can seemingly win anywhere.
On Tuesday, Modern Games will be a short price to win one of Britain’s greatest prizes for turf milers – the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes on the opening day of the five-day Royal Ascot meeting west of London.
