We’re finishing off our Royal Ascot 2023 tips with seven selections for Saturday’s superb closing card.
The Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes is the Group One feature, while the Wokingham handicap is always one of the biggest betting heats of the entire season.
Aidan O’Brien has saddled a record six Chesham Stakes winners and looks to have a strong hand again this year with two fancied runners.
Content is sure to come on a ton for her debut third at Leopardstown earlier this month but Ryan Moore prefers fast-finishing Navan scorer Pearls And Rubies and that decision is hard to ignore.
Owners Amo Racing celebrated a shock 150/1 success with Valiant Force in Thursday’s Norfolk Stakes and could make a quick return to the winner’s enclosure with this Jersey Stakes contender.
Olivia Maralda belied odds of 125/1 by running well for a long way when seventh in the 1000 Guineas and relished dropping back down to seven furlongs when claiming a convincing victory in Listed company at Epsom, powering clear of the well-backed Holguin.
Amo’s racing manager Tom Pennington said: “Roger Varian is adamant she has improved again from Epsom. She hadn’t quite come in her coat then but she has thrived since and the warm weather has helped.
“She clocked a very good time at Epsom and I think at one stage she clocked a sub-10 second furlong. I know the ground was quick there and it is the right track to be posting those sort of times, but she has come out of the race really well.”
The Australian raiders failed to sparkle in Tuesday’s King’s Stand, when Highfield Princess was a fine second, but this colt has the benefit of experience from being placed in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes 12 months ago.
Artorius had to come from a long way back on that occasion and was denied a clear passage at a crucial time before flying home for third with Jamie Spencer on board, so hopefully James McDonald will be able to pounce from a handier position.
“I am a bit more relaxed than last year and not under as much pressure,” said co-trainer Sam Freedman. “He is a lot shorter in the market and there is a bit more expectation, but last year it was the unknown and whether he was going to measure up – this year we know he is good enough.
“If you look at the form, he looks to be the horse with the best credentials and I think he has improved into his four-year-old season.
“I am not so concerned about the opposition, but more where he will end up and where he will get to in the run. I am confident taking on any of the sprinters in the world, but it is a case of getting the right transit and a bit of luck.”
John and Thady Gosden have enjoyed a great week, picking up two Group One prizes and a Group Two gong, and this winning machine can make it seven victories from her nine outings by prevailing in the Hardwicke Stakes.
The five-year-old mare has claimed a hat-trick of wins at this Group Two level and the value of those triumphs has been boosted by the subsequent efforts of those in behind her.
Lancashire Oaks runner-up Sea La Rosa went on to oblige in her next three races, including a Group One in France, while May’s Middleton Stakes second Rogue Millennium went one better here in the Duke of Cambridge Stakes on Wednesday.
Karl Burke’s much-vaunted juveniles have been running well this week without quite hitting the target and we’re hoping this four-year-old sprinter can provide the trainer with some compensation in the Wokingham.
Lethal Levi won six times in his first two campaigns and looks ready to add to that tally after going down by just a neck when second of 21 behind Bielsa in an ultra-competitive York handicap last month.
Richard Fahey’s charge won two of his last three races as a juvenile at Haydock and Nottingham and, having been gelded over the winter, he returned to action with an encouraging close fourth in the London Gold Cup at Newbury.
It could turn out that there are one or two unexposed types in the Golden Gates Stakes capable of going on to bigger and better things in the future, but Have Secret is a likeable sort with solid each-way prospects for our Royal Ascot 2023 tips.
Willie Mullins may be better known for his exploits at Cheltenham but he made it nine wins at this meeting when Vauban romped away with Tuesday’s Copper Horse Handicap, when stablemate Absurde stayed on for second.
Stratum has accounted for two of those triumphs by taking the last couple of renewals of the concluding Queen Alexandra Stakes and will have been laid out for a hat-trick bid in the near-2m 6f marathon, so let’s put our faith in the Closutton maestro again.
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