Royal Ascot Betting Tips: Our Best Bets For Day 1 At The Meeting

Royal Ascot Day 1 Tips:

• 14:30 - Queen Anne Stakes – Native Trail: 7/1 with William Hill
• 15:40 - King's Stand Stakes – Highfield Princess: 9/4 with Bet365
• 17:00 - Ascot Stakes – Bring On The Night: 2/1 with Ladbrokes
• 17:35 - Wolferton Stakes – Francesco Clemente: 11/2 with BoyleSports

Royal Ascot has finally arrived and we’re looking forward to the opening day of the meeting. 

Many punters are looking beyond the favourites and instead hunting down some winners at a big price with online bookmakers.

In this article, we take a look through the Royal Ascot Day 1 racecard and identify a number of selections which should be able to go well at a nice price. 

14:30 - Queen Anne Stakes

Favourite backers have had it good in this race in recent years and in Inspiral and Modern Games, they have two great shots of landing this prestigious contest. 

If Inspiral, who produced a career-best performance at this meeting last year, can reproduce that level of form then she will take some stopping but she’s not the most reliable of propositions, for all her obvious quality. 

Of the market leaders, the super-consistent Modern Games looks the more solid option and it’s easy to see him getting the meeting off to a winning start for Godolphin.

However, at the prices it looks worth siding with his stablemate Native Trail who might still turn out to be a better horse than Modern Games if connections can keep him fit and healthy.

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Already a three-time Group 1 winner, Native Trail kept the most prestigious of company last season, indeed his half-length defeat in the Coral-Eclipse is arguably the best single piece of form on offer from any runner in this field.

The selection shouldn’t be judged too harshly for his defeat at Newmarket on seasonal return given the winner stole a march on a track that was favouring front-runners on the day and that pipe-opener should put him spot on for a crack at another Group 1.

We know he stays further but a strongly-run mile on a stiff track like Ascot will suit him really well and, with the Charlie Appleby stable in much better form now than at any previous time this season, this talented son of Oasis Dream has plenty in his favour.

15:40 - King's Stand Stakes

The international raiders, of which Coolangatta looks the chief threat, are going to need to be top class if they are going to lower the colours of a peak-form Highfield Princess.

John Quinn’s stable star carried all before her in top sprint races last season and although beaten at York on her seasonal return, that was a run packed with promise for the rest of the campaign.

Highfield Princess was conceding weight and race fitness to the fast-improving sprinter Azure Blue, who was having her second run of the campaign, in the Clipper Stakes so to get within half a length of that rival was a cracking start to a season that promises so much.

The six-year-old has proved she’s versatile regarding trip and ground but a strongly-run five furlongs on a stiff track like Ascot suits her as well as any scenario. 

Stall 10 gives Jason Hart options depending on who he wants to track, she’s the highest-rated sprinter in the line-up and her stable are among the winners, so it’s hard to find any negatives to her chance. 

She’s going to be extremely hard to beat and rates nap material.

17:00 - Ascot Stakes

A huge field is the norm for this race but a whole host of these are effectively having a ‘social’ run. 

The standout exception is Bring On The Night who, according to horse racing betting sites, was expected to win last year’s renewal.

Indeed, he looked well on the way to doing so until Coltrane pulled out a bit more in the closing stages to score by three-quarters of a length.

Twelve months on, Coltrane is rated 19lb higher and heading the market for the Gold Cup, which serves to highlight just how huge a task Bring On The Night ultimately faced last year.

Connections of the favourite would have to be seriously unlucky people for their horse to bump into a future Gold Cup horse for a second year in a row and the Willie Mullins-trained contender has been saved for another crack at this prize ever since last year’s defeat.

With Ryan Moore riding at the very top of his game, everything looks in place for Bring On The Night to provide his trainer with a fifth victory in the race.

17:35 - Wolferton Stakes

John Gosden has won the Wolferton Stakes a record four times and the master trainer again holds a strong hand.

His royal runner Saga will rightly be a popular pick with betting apps under Frankie Dettori but stablemate Francesco Clemente has a good deal more potential than most of these and it would be a surprise if he wasn’t plying his trade in Group races later this season.

Hugely progressive in just three starts last term, he rounded off his campaign with a stunning nine length success off 99 in a Newmarket handicap and it was clear from that point that we were dealing with a horse capable of landing Pattern-class prizes.

The Dubawi colt couldn’t justify short odds at Goodwood on reappearance but he showed signs of greenness that day, notably when losing lengths around that top bend.

The experience won’t have been lost on him and the application of cheekpieces should just help this lightly-raced colt concentrate on the job in hand. 

Already one of the highest-rated horses in this line-up, he has the scope to climb much further up the ladder and, back on a more conventional track, this looks an ideal opening to remind everyone just how good he is.