Weekend betting: Who to back at Royal Ascot

A few eyebrows were raised in the industry when last year’s Derby winner Masar was announced to run in Saturday’s Hardwicke Stakes over the more prestigious Prince of Wales Stakes, run on Wednesday.

I think the Godolphin operation were thinking it would be a much more realistic opportunity to get his four-year-old season off to a winning start and the bookies make him a 4/1 chance to do just that.

The manner in which he won the Derby shows he will relish the trip Saturday and whilst he is up against some seasoned campaigners in the likes of Defoe and Kew Gardens, it wouldn’t surprise me should he put them to the sword and go on improving, possibly back at Ascot in July at the King George.

Another horse with a big chance is Invincible Army in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes, who has done nothing wrong this season, winning both his starts with a bit in hand, most recently at York last month.

He is in shrewd hands with James Tate and whilst he does line up against some unknown quantities from France, the price of around 4/1 looks very fair given how he looks to be improving all the time.

The first race of the day the Chesham sees up and coming two-year olds race over seven furlongs and I always feel its good to look down the list for some value with the youngsters. Ger Lyons doesn’t send them over to England to make up the numbers and his colt Justifier won a nice debut at Leopardstown only last week.

He could potentially be smart and at 12/1 it could 
be a sound each way investment.

I hope you have enjoyed the action at Royal Ascot folks, it is always good to have a bit of racing on one of the main terrestrial channels during the week.

Saturday should be another cracker and again one which looks tricky enough for the punters.

It is nice to get involved, but please as always, keep it fun,

Joe.