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Key occasions
Royal Procession Stakes, 2pm
Rory Bremner is among the many friends within the carriages right now, hopefully offering a Peter O’Sullevan impression or two.
O’Sullevan, after all, would assist describe the procession when he was commentating for the BBC and was heard, as our common reader is aware of, on the Serpentine gallery exhibition by artist Mark Wallinger which I noticed again in 1994 when certainly one of his installations, referred to as ‘Royal Ascot’, consisted of a collection of video displays on prime of wheeled flight circumstances, every isolating the royal carriage’s leisurely progress down the monitor on the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (respectively, because it was then) of the assembly with, because the British Council factors out of their description of the art work, “the distinction from day after day is barely discernible, simply because the 4 commentaries merge in a confused blather.”
4.20pm JERSEY STAKES preview
A well-recognized combine within the Jersey of runners dropping again in journey and sophistication after failing to measure up in a Guineas, and progressive, lightly-raced sorts that will enhance previous them on their option to betting issues. Ya Mo Be there, Benevento and Seagulls Eleven all ran within the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, ending eighth, 10th and final of 11 respectively, however California Dreamer is certainly a runner on his type within the Irish equal, the place he outran odds of 50-1 to complete second, with Comanche Courageous, right now’s favorite, again in fifth. The plain potential improvers, in the meantime, are Marvelman, for the Andrew Balding/Oisin Murphy combo, and Owen Burrows’s Remmooz, who made a profitable racecourse debut in April after which adopted up in a novice at Doncaster earlier this month.
SELECTION: REMMOOZ
3.40 QUEEN ELIZABETH II JUBILEE STAKES preview
A really worldwide renewal of the ultimate day’s function occasion, which brings collectively the perfect sprinting type strains from France, Britain, Asia and Australia in a six-furlong sprint on quick racing floor. Timeform’s scores have Lazzat, who may be very weak out there thus far right now, on the prime of the pile, a few kilos forward of Inisherin, final 12 months’s Commonwealth Cup winner, and Topgear, a formidable winner – over seven furlongs – at Longchamp final time, with Satono Reve and Flora Of Bermuda an extra 1lb behind. The races to contemplate most intently when weighing up the possible winner embrace the Hong Kong Dash at Sha Tin in December, the Prix du Palais-Royal at Longchamp final month and the Duke Of York at York, additionally final month, and whereas I’m very hopeful that Satono Reve will get a primary ever Japanese victory on the Royal assembly on the board, it’s a wide-open race and feels each bit as aggressive because the Wokingham Handicap over the identical journey in a while the cardboard.
SELECTION: SATONO REVE.
Hong Kong Dash, Sha Tin, 8 Dec 24 (Satono Reve).
https://youtu.be/OgaXbSrOgAI?si=h6q9LgS9vwUPqWut
Chairman’s Dash, Sha Tin 27 Apr 25 (Satono Reve).
https://youtu.be/7MB7qsFCdMs?si=0e_Vc66LbLN97XV8
Prix Maurice Du Gheest, Deauville 4 Aug 24 (Lazzat, Flora Of Bermuda, Nice Technology).
https://youtu.be/cUJoEzW8jG8?si=eTbGE4qI6P4zLMP4
Duke Of York Stakes, York 14 Could 25 (Inisherin, Flora Of Bermuda, Elite Standing).
https://youtu.be/mbAGWEG1u00?si=aR8P91j4RPcnOwhi
Commonwealth Cup, Ascot 21 Jun 24 (Inisherin).
https://youtu.be/Heqsk-110Xs?si=XpAlzMhwHLBBfGqf
San Domenico Stakes, Rosehill 31 Aug 24 (Storm Boy)
https://youtu.be/MpZHfAS5cEw?si=x0EI1VGoTyupy2GL
Golden Rose, Rosehill, 28 Sept 24 (Storm Boy).
https://youtu.be/zboFBQIG63Y?function=shared
Prix du Palais-Royal, Longchamp 25 Could 25 (Topgear, Sajir).
https://youtu.be/CY3BVSUZNHw?si=ilknivsfyiGLeIqq
British Champions Dash Stakes, Ascot, 19 Oct 24 (Flora Of Bermuda, James’s Delight, Elite Standing)
https://youtu.be/0knDGLoOR9o?function=shared
Greg Wooden
3.05pm HARDWICKE STAKES preview
Profitable a single Group One race is a large and really uncommon achievement for any thoroughbred. Profitable seven is extraordinary and but, Insurgent’s Romance not often appears to get the credit score that his report deserves, maybe as a result of his seven top-level wins had been recorded in Germany, Hong Kong, Dubai and the US, the place he’s a twin winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf. He might be fancied to make a Group One breakthrough in Britain in subsequent month’s King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, having been a stable third in the identical race final season, and might be seeking to set himself up for that with a win right here over the identical course and distance.
Feedback about Charlie Appleby’s type on the assembly in relation to Treanmor within the previous Chesham Stakes apply equally to Insurgent’s Romance, however he seems to be a really stable favorite again at his perfect journey after his class received him house over 14 furlongs in final month’s Yorkshire Cup. Joseph O’Brien’s Al Riffa, blinkered for the primary time right now, is his major rival in accordance with Timeform scores, and he’s additionally a a number of Group One winner having taken the Nationwide Stakes as a juvenile and the Grosser Preis von Berlin at Hoppegarten final August. He was final seen ending a three-length fourth behind Sosie, the present favorite for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, within the Prix Ganay at Longchamp.
SELECTION: REBEL’S ROMANCE

Greg Wooden
2.30pm CHESHAM STAKES preview
Aidan O’Brien has received 5 of the final 9 runnings of this race, and two of these wins had been with fillies that received the identical Leopardstown maiden that Moments Of Pleasure, his solely runner this 12 months, took simply over a fortnight in the past. That clearly makes her a significant participant, however she just isn’t the favorite, as Godolphin’s major coach, Charlie Appleby, has picked this race out as the following step for Treanmor, an eye-wateringly costly yearling finally October’s gross sales who made quick work of his subject on debut at Newmarket final month. Appleby has been having a tough time of it thus far this week, drawing a clean with 10 runners thus far, and actually on the Royal assembly full cease in current seasons. His final winner right here was the 33-1 shot Naval Crown on the ultimate day in 2022, and his final 36 Royal runners, together with a 5-4 favorite and two at 6-4, have all been overwhelmed. It’s honest to say he might do with a change of fortune.
One other runner who deserves a point out is Humidity, not least as he’s a full brother to Holloway Boy, the 40-1 winner of this race in 2022. That, unusually for a Royal winner, was Holloway Boy’s racecourse debut, however his bro has had a run, scraping house by a short-head in a maiden at Newbury earlier than being offered to the ever-expanding Wathnan Racing operation.
SELECTION: TREANMOR
The going for day 5 of is, shock shock, Good to Agency
GoingStick (the upper the determine the quicker the bottom) at 8.30am:
Stands’ facet: 8.8
Centre: 8.5
Far facet: 8.8
Spherical: 7.4
The jockeys switched sides yesterday so, as Tom Collins identified on ITV Racing this morning, it’s tough to gauge which facet of the monitor might be favoured. That’s not a lot assist however it’s the sincere reply!
Non-runners
3.40pm Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (Group 1)
6 James’s Delight (unsuitable floor)
5.00pm Wokingham Stakes (Heritage Handicap)
8 Image Of Honour ( temperature)
5.35pm Golden Gates Stakes
15 The King’s Falcon (unhealthy scope)
Good morning. And after yesterday’s sojourn to Ascot in my finery (of which extra later) right here’s the run down of right now’s motion and after ginving you the going and non-runner particulars I’ll begin publishing Greg Wooden’s previews of all of the races.
2.30pm – Chesham Stakes (7f)
3.05pm – Hardwicke Stakes (1m 4f)
3.40pm – Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (6f)
4.20pm – Jersey Stakes (7f)
5.00pm – Wokingham Stakes (Heritage Handicap) (6f)
5.35pm – Golden Gates Stakes (Handicap) (1m 2f)
6.10pm – Queen Alexandra Stakes (2m 6f)
Preamble

Greg Wooden
Welcome again to Ascot on the fifth brilliant, heat morning in a row at this 12 months’s Royal assembly, on a day when the most important crowd of the week may simply witness a second of racing historical past within the afternoon’s function occasion, the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (3.40pm).
Japan has change into certainly one of world racing’s powerhouses during the last quarter of a century, successful main races on all continents and sometimes bringing loads of travelling followers alongside for the journey. Their report at Royal Ascot, nevertheless, and actually, at Ascot full cease, is a story of woe, with the occasional near-miss alongside the way in which.
Agnes World, the primary Japanese-trained runner on the assembly, completed second, overwhelmed simply over a size, in what was then the Group Two King’s Stand Stakes, when he was giving weight to his 22 rivals (and in his subsequent race, received the Group One July Cup, the summer season sprinting championship). One in every of his steady companions completed 22nd in the identical race, and since then, solely certainly one of 10 runners from Japan has even reached the primary 5 (Shahryar, within the 2022 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes).
In Noriyuki Hori’s Satono Reve, although, the nation has certainly one of its strongest contenders for years, and using legend Joao Moreira has flown in to take the reins. The six-year-old has type that places him inside a size or two of Ka Ying Rising, the top-rated sprinter in world racing, and has been given loads of time to get used to his new environment having arrived in Newmarket in early Could.
I believe he might be the horse to lastly break Japan’s duck right here, and the market appears to agree as he has been backed from 9-2 to 5-2 favorite this morning. Inisherin, final 12 months’s winner of the Commonwealth Cup right here, is subsequent in on 9-2, and in a really worldwide subject, two French-trained runners, Lazzat and Topgear, are subsequent in at 5-1 and 6-1 respectively.
The Jersey Stakes (4.20pm), for three-year-olds over seven furlongs, and the Hardwicke Stakes, over a mile-and-a-half and a race that has usually been a stepping stone to the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes right here in July, are the primary supporting races on right now’s card, together with the ever-popular Wokingham Handicap at 5pm.
The going stays good-to-firm throughout after additional watering final night time, and temperatures are anticipated to climb in direction of 30C because the afternoon goes on, which ought to make sure that the monitor is bursting on the seams by the point the royal procession makes its approach down the monitor simply earlier than 2pm. The attendance has been up on daily of the assembly thus far – it was an 8% leap on Friday – and there’s each probability the course will full a full home right now, for the second 12 months in a row.
John & Thady Gosden are tied at 5 apiece within the race to be prime coach, Oisin Murphy is simply two wins behind Ryan Moore after taking the final race right here on Friday and you’ll observe all of the motion and slings and arrows of outrageous fortune because the 2025 Royal assembly attracts to a detailed proper right here on the Guardian’s reside weblog.