The latest news and best bets from Ladies’ Day at Royal Ascot, plus our tipping competition 1.20pm Waiting for Beckett Chris Cook: Having looked at the jockey stats earlier, it seems only fair to mention a trainer who seems to have his own struggles with Ascot. Ralph Beckett, a highly capable trainer whose strike-rate is 13% in all turf races over the past five seasons, is 0 from 34 at Ascot during that time, according to Racing Post statistics. Beckett runs Layline in today’s Britannia and Puff in the Coronation tomorrow. As I pointed out earlier, Dane O’Neill has a 2% strike-rate at this track (one win from 55 attempts). He rides Dinkum Diamond, favourite for today’s Norfolk Stakes, the first race. The horse is trained by Henry Candy, whose own Ascot strike-rate is 3%. Dinkum Diamond should have no chance on those figures. Seasoned followers of stats will be aware, however, that this probably makes him a certainty. 12.40pm The inside dope on today’s royal procession Will Hayler: So far this week, we’ve had Richard Fahey and Mark Tompkins appear in the carriages for the Royal procession, but there’s no place on Ladies’ Day for any other trainers. Instead, it’s the Crown Prince of Bahrain, Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa, who gets to ride upfront with The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duke of York. No jokes about ‘fake sheikhs’ please. Interestingly, while the Viscount and Viscountess Grimston are allowed to ride together in the third carriage, along with Princess Eugenie, the Earl of Hopetoun gets to go in the second carriage, while the Countess is demoted to detached motor car number 7. I hope they’re all watching out for the policeman with the speed gun who tried to catch me coming out of Windsor Great Park this morning. 12.35pm Which jockeys ride Ascot well / poorly? Chris Cook: A big, galloping circuit with lots of room in the straight, Ascot looks as though it should be a straightforward ride. But races here typically demand a lot of a horse’s stamina, so you can’t make your move too early. Don’t leave it too late, though, because the home straight is shorter than many other tracks and you may not have enough time to make up the ground. After all, there’s often traffic problems as the field comes round the home turn. If you’re on the straight course, you have to find where the best ground is. All in all, there’s a lot of factors to consider for any jockey, and ample opportunity for them to show their ability, or lack thereof. So each rider’s strike-rate at Ascot must be a relevant factor for punters to consider. According to the Racing Post’s statistics, Johnny Murtagh (18%), Tom Queally (16%) and Richard Hills (16%) have the best records since 2006 of those jockeys at the course today. Both, of course, would have had many excellent horses to ride, which always helps. Ryan Moore is on a surprisingly pedestrian 11%, while Frankie Dettori is on 8%. At the other end of the table are Pat Smullen (0 wins from 26 rides since 2006), Dane O’Neill (2%), Christophe Soumillon (4%), Liam Keniry (5%) and Jimmy Quinn (5%). Some of those would have had very few winning chances in that time – but what’s Christophe’s excuse? Follow Greg Wood’s tweets from the paddock Greg Wood will be paddockside before the Norfolk Stakes (2.30) and the Gold Cup (3.50), tweeting about the state of the various runners. You can read his impressions as to their wellbeing here . 11.30am Claudio Fallisco to score today? Chris Cook: This online Brazilian nickname generator has been helping our football staff pass the time between goals during the many tedious games at the World Cup so far. It’s fun and there have been rumours that Racing For Change is going to use it to generate Brazilnames for the jockeys at Royal Ascot this week, which they will be required to wear on the back of their silks. Ryan Moore comes out as Moorson, which seems appropriate for the son of a fine trainer. Boringly, Johnny Murtagh becomes Murta and Hayley Turner is a predictable Turnio, but Frankie Dettori produces the excellent Dettorandro, while Kieren Fallon is a frankly thrilling Claudio Fallisco. Will Hayler previews day three I start the third day of the Royal meeting content in the knowledge that a pound on every one of my selections so far this week would have yielded an astonishing profit of a penny. Not bad, eh? That means if you’d have had a modest £1,000 on each one, you’d be a whole tenner up. And you can buy a lot with a tenner. Not that I’m particularly confident about sending profits rocketing any further upwards on today’s card, given that it looks fiendishly tough stuff. You could have 10 goes in the Britannia and still get nothing in the first four, although if yesterday’s bias towards high-drawn horses is repeated that will at least help to narrow options down. Despite watering overnight, the going stick readings are just as quick as yesterday (stands’ side 9.9, centre 9.8, far side 10.0) and the official going is ‘good to firm, good in places’. Ask (3.50) has been my selection for the Gold Cup since before the start of the season. He is a high-quality performer, who definitely stays two miles and who, we are led to believe, is fully over whatever problems were holding him up earlier this season. Manifest was impressive in the Yorkshire Cup and, having been down to as low as 9-4 last week, he has drifted back out to a more-backable 4-1 this morning. But Ask did the job just as effectively in last year’s Yorkshire Cup and I just can’t oppose him because: a) I’d fancy him to win a match race against Manifest over a mile and a half, and b) Ask looks just as likely to stay today’s trip. The only other bet I have placed so far today is on London Stripe (5.35) , despite a disappointing wide draw in the King George V Handicap – a race his trainer, Sir Michael Stoute, loves to target. He is said to be one of Ryan Moore’s very favourite horses in the stable and is likely to take the beating. You can read my preview of today’s TV races here . Win a £50 free bet from Paddy Power Paddy Power have very kindly offered a £50 free bet to our champion tipster today. All you have to do is give us your selections for all of today’s races at Royal Ascot. As ever, our champion will be the tipster who returns the best profit to notional level stakes of £1 on each selection at starting price. Non-runners count as losers. Please post all your tips in a single posting, using the comment facility below, before the first race at 2.30pm. There are six races at Ascot today and you must post a single selection for each race. Our usual terms and conditions, which you can read here , will apply, except that this will be a strictly one-day thing. If we get a tie after all the races have been run, the winner will be the one who posted their tips earliest out of those with the highest score. If you don’t win today, don’t despair. We’ll run the same competition again tomorrow. Emmapathak was the only one to find Invisible Man, 28-1 winner of yesterday’s Royal Hunt Cup. Together with Strawberrydaiquiri, that was enough to make her champion. Moidadembums , cruelly denied on Tuesday, has stolen a march by posting his tips for today, using yesterday’s blog: 2.30 Dinkum Diamond 3.05 Gertrude Bell 3.50 Kasbah Bliss 4.25 Ransom Note 5.00 Quadrille 5.35 Tactician Click here for all the day’s racecards, form, stats and results. Click here for today’s latest odds. And post your tips and racing-related comments below. Horse racing Horse racing tips Royal Ascot Will Hayler Chris Cook Tony Paley Greg Wood guardian.co.uk
