Royal Ascot Tips: Best Racing Tips for Day 1

Today's Horse Racing Tips

• 14:30 Ascot – Triple Time – 1pt e/w @ 28/1 (4 places) with bet365
• 15:40 Ascot – Twilight Calls – 1pt @ 25/1 with 888sport
• 17:35 Ascot – Francesco Clemente – 2pts @ 11/2 with bet365
• 18:10 Ascot – Charging Thunder – 1pt e/w @ 66/1 (5 places) with BetVictor

For today's horse racing tips, our analyst James Boyle looks at the flat racing action at Royal Ascot, with four selections now online.

As always, you’ll find the most up-to-date odds at the best horse racing betting sites, but don’t sleep on our tipster’s predictions as those odds could soon be gobbled up by the betting public. Odds stated are correct at the time of publishing.

14:30 Ascot – Triple Time – 1pt e/w @ 28/1

There’s no doubting that this is a competitive renewal of the Queen Anne but I don’t think it’s much more than average in terms of top-class mile Group 1’s and want to hunt down something at a price to oppose the main contenders. Some sort of claim can be made for most of those at double-figured odds but the one I’ve come down on as the most interesting is Kevin Ryan’s 4-year-old, Triple Time.

It’s impossible to know where his limit is and he’s the real unknown quantity in the race. Granted, it’s entirely possible that he’s not up to this level and I’m wasting my money, but it’s also yet to be proven where he truly ranks. I have a sneaky suspicion that he’s very classy and a few setbacks along the way are the main reason why he hasn’t got the chance to prove what he can do on the racecourse yet.

He was spoken about as a Guineas horse after winning his final two juvenile starts but then didn’t reappear until September of his Classic season. That return yielded a small-field Group 3 win at Haydock and whilst it wasn’t a great race in the context of this, he was much the best. Things didn’t pan out so well next time in France as he pulled his head off in rear and couldn’t finish the race off.

As long as rain doesn’t ruin the ground, he’ll get a better surface to run on this time and that’ll be a help. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was ridden more prominently as well (made all for both juvenile wins) and there isn’t an excess of pace on here. Ultimately, it’ll come down to whether he’s good enough and I don’t know. But he’s a 28/1 shot and that price is making the risk worthwhile in my book.

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15:40 Ascot – Twilight Calls – 1pt @ 25/1

Mitbaahy was my number one choice in the lead up to the King’s Stand when he was priced up around the 25/1 mark and I thought that was an outstanding value bet. Sadly, so too did many others and he has been backed into prices between 9/1 & 12/1. It will be annoying if the inevitable happens but I can’t suggest siding with him now as he’s the right price, and the best I can hope for is a drift.

Many others are interesting but Twilight Calls is the one who could be underrated in the betting. His season hasn’t gone well, the ground going against him at Newmarket and then at Haydock he was said to have had a poor prep, his scope in the week leading up to the race not being optimal. He travelled through it typically well but when he was let down, there was no response and that’s not him.

Henry Candy said he was quiet for a few days afterwards and I’m inclined to forgive, forget and hope for better this time. Last year he was a sprinter on the up and ran a cracker to finish second in this race, only beaten by Nature Strip. Those who finished close to him would make you question the form but I’m not sure he was at his best there in any regard (didn’t race again for the rest of the season).

Highfield Princess sets a high standard and won’t have a problem dropping back to the minimum trip, but there’ll be pressure on her throughout and it might just pay to side with something that’s going to come from further back. There’s a lot of hoping and excusing in putting Twilight Calls up as the most likely to run her down, but I don’t think we’ve seen his best level yet and it might be on show here.

17:35 Ascot – Francesco Clemente – 2pts @ 11/2

This is a wide-open contest but Francesco Clemente should be the outright favourite to win. If Frankie Dettori was on board him and not Saga, he would be and I don’t think the market is right currently, despite Rab Havlin not being as capable in the saddle. On the plus side, Havlin has been up the last twice and is operating at as good a level as he has done in years, 48 wins in 2023 at a 20% strike-rate.

That figure should be a little higher as the horse was desperately unfortunate not to defeat King Of Conquest on his seasonal return at Goodwood, showing his inexperience by running wide as a gate off the bend and conceding at least a couple of lengths to the field. Given that he only went down by a neck at the line after travelling back into it well, it’s not rocket-science to say he should have won.

He was both impressive and progressive last year also, winning all three starts, and marked himself down as one to follow when bolting up in a handicap off 99. The likes of this test demands more than anything he has done to date but he’ll improve for that recent run, should appreciate this track and has cheekpieces on to hopefully help him stay straight. If they work, he’s going to be hard stopped.

18:10 Ascot – Charging Thunder – 1pt e/w @ 66/1

Charging Thunder will either run a cracker or finish out with the washing, I doubt there’ll be an in-between, but he’s a huge price so I’ll play. We haven’t got to see him since he ran four times in Meydan but races on that track rarely pan out to suit his style as he wants an end-to-end tempo. It’s far more likely that he’ll get what he’s after here and could be a completely different proposition.

Where his fitness will be at for a race of this calibre is anyone’s guess but his record in June & July reads 5 wins from 8 starts and it’s the time of year when he peaks. Three of those wins came when he was moving up the ranks last season and he followed them up with a good second over 1m 4f here on Shergar Cup day, proving that the track isn’t a problem (and I think he’ll prefer the longer trip today).

The way he can travel into a race offers hope that he can cut it with this quality of opposition and if he can find a nice early rhythm, travel at the back off a strong pace and get a clear run at things, it wouldn’t be a massive shock to see him in the mix late on. He definitely has enough talent to get into one of the five places and I’ll take a punt that he’s ready to rock from a conditioning point of view.

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