Saturday is King George day. Ascot stages the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at 3:35, a Group 1 over 1m4f with a barely believable £1,134,200 to the winner, and it is the middle-distance championship of the year. There are seven meetings and 51 races on the card, and the big one at Ascot is where we will finish. More on that later.
What follows is not a full card-by-card. It is the races we actually have a view on, in time order, and we say plainly which are bets, which are watching briefs, and, in the case of the feature, why we are happy to sit on our hands.
1:45 Ascot: Alta Regina steps up and should have the class
The Princess Margaret Japan Cup Stakes is a Group 3 for two-year-old fillies over 6f, worth £45,368, with eleven runners. The one we want is Alta Regina (Hamad Al Jehani, Jamie Spencer), and the case for her is all about the race she ran in last time.
She was sixth in the Queen Mary Stakes, the Group 2 at Royal Ascot, over the minimum trip of 5f. Victorious won it, and the form behind the winner is rock solid: Senorita Bonita was second, Crownbreaker fifth just ahead of Alta Regina, and one place further back came Shimmering Sun, a filly already in our tracker. Down the field, Big Negotiator has since gone to Naas and won. Our reading is simply that Alta Regina did not quite have the raw speed to go with them over five furlongs. She was doing her best work late.
Now she steps up to six, which looks sure to suit, and she brings the strongest piece of Royal Ascot form in the race with her. She is a short enough price at around 3/1, but she looks the one to beat under Jamie Spencer.