ASCOT GOLD CUP

F&G is 6yo but I wouldn't hold that against him particularly as this is a stayers race and doesn't require speed to win. He is the same age as Cirrus Des Aigles.

Yeats was also winning this at 7 & 8.

Unoriginal but i'd not look past F&G as you say Tinkler.

ROP had plenty of injury issues. Sadlers Rock was benefitting from all the weight concessions last year.

Colour Vision was very impressive and comes from a yard who love the race.

Think when they get over 5 years old its more difficult to keep them sweet, Sint. The ability may well
still be their but in some of his races last year it looked to me like he'd become a bit hit and miss,though he did seem to hit when he came to Ascot.    Yeats was the only 8 y/o to have won the race in over 100 years (not a good stat for Rite of Passage) and AOB worked wonders in retaining the horses enthusiasm as he did with Istabraq.
Hopefully if they both line up Colour Vision will have progressed past F & G.
Theres still time for other challengers to appear from other races.

Would be massively keen if Be Fabulous turned up here - but with Opinion Poll and Colour Vision already likely runners it must be unlikely

DUNADEN Atr 15/05 Melbourne Cup winner Dunaden will remain at a mile and a half for his next run.

The Mikel Delzangles-trained six-year-old finished third behind Al Kazeem in the Jockey Club Stakes on his first start since winning the Hong Kong Vase.

He is set to stay over 12 furlongs for the first half of the summer before possibly stepping back up in trip again later on.

"He's come back very well but he needed the run. I think he'll improve a great deal for it," said Delzangles.

"He might run in the Grand Prix de Chantilly - he might, it's not definite. We'll stay at a mile and a half until July and then we'll see."

NEVER CAN TELL 14/5 Jamie Osborne's Cesarewitch winner Never Can Tell is unlikely to take up her entry in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot.

The five-year-old returned to action in the Chester Cup last week but could only manage eighth behind Ile De Re. Osborne believes the two-mile-two-furlong trip on soft ground stretched her stamina and the extra quarter of a mile in the Gold Cup might not suit.

"We were concerned about running her over that trip on that ground and she clearly didn't stay," said Osborne on At The Races.

"We're just going to sit on the fence a while. She's in the Gold Cup, but that would be highly unlikely now.

"We're more likely to run her in a handicap and if she comes down a pound, she'll be able to run in the Ascot Stakes I think.

"She's a good filly, but extreme distances on soft ground are just too much for her."

OVERTURN 14/5 Donald McCain has confirmed that his dual-purpose performer Overturn is likely to have his next race in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot.

Second in the Champion Hurdle to Rock On Ruby, Overturn then attempted to follow up his win in the Chester Cup of 12 months ago and on ground softer than ideal and racing off a 7lb higher mark, he put up a bold display, only to be caught close home by his new stablemate Ile De Re.

"Almost definitely he will go to Royal Ascot and it's almost definitely for the Gold Cup. We've got nothing to lose. He'll turn up on the day and do what Overturn does. If that's not good enough then fine, but he deserves his chance," said McCain on At The Races.

"He's gone up to 112 now so we'll go and hopefully get ground we can run on and see what happens."

The Chester Cup winner, on the other hand, will attempt to emulate Overturn again at Newcastle.

"He'll go for the Northumberland Plate. It would be lovely to win it again," added McCain.

I thought that was a super performance from F&G just then. Conceding 10lb to the race fit and useful Unaccompanied, with Steps To Freedom back in third who is no mug.

Wish I taken some of the 3/1 for Ascot, I nearly did when discussing this race last week.

* had taken

Didn't look to be any signs of deterioration from F & G . Travelled sweatly and showed guts to fend off
Unaccommpanied.
Still happy enough with the Colour Vision bet , with red Cadeaux franking his Kempton form and apart
from F & G victory today nothing else has yet emmerged as a big danger that I can see.
If young joseph get's the leg up on F & G in the Gold cup and rides the horse as aggressively as he did
today I think Colour Vision has everychance of picking him off late. His pace judgement looks iffy to me.

Only way Spencer wont ride at Ascot is through suspension as he is retained by the owner.
I was really impressed with F+G today as ive no doubt Aidan left plenty to work on and think he will have to run below par at Ascot to be beat.

I was impressed too. Was in the firing line from a long way out, and knuckled down very well to win. Excellent debut.

I still believe Dunguib could win an Ascot gold cup, hard on the snaff....But we will never know.

Fame&Glory like last year will take all the beating in the Gcup.
The boysNblue look to have the main danger with Colour Vision, he was very impres last time, Red C winning at York gd boost to the form.
The 1 i would like 2 see take up the GC challenge is Masked Marvel the Leger winner, has that touch of class & looks like he would stay all day.

Opinion Poll an impressive win at Sandown last week. He is held on last years form and he had his favourable ground that day, GoodtoSoft. Can he bridge the gape with F&G?

Sadlers Rock runs tomorrow at Leopardstown and the F&G form is represented by Unaccompained and Steps To Freedom. A good race.

John Oxx after Saddlers Rocks second place at leopardstown
"Considering the ground ,which he hates, and the lack of previous run this season I'm very pleased. He blew up and then got his second wind and finished with a good rattle. He'll take his chance in the Ascot Gold Cup. "
Eternal Heart set a decent pace on heavy ground and Saddlers Rock had anything but an easy race  2 weeks before the Gold cup. There must be a doubt he'll fully recover in such a short
space of time ,coupled with the GC looking increasingly likely to be run
on ground on the softer side of good he looks underpriced to me.

All you will need for Ascot to be g/f is around 5 days of dry weather

RP today Coc " We've had 2 inches of rain over the past week
and the ground is a mixture of good to soft and good at the moment.The low pressure is set to continue into next week and up to the start of Royal Ascot week and we're forecast more rain, but hopefully not in the volumes we've had this week.
With the ground the way it stands at the minute and with the
forecast rain, there's every chance the meeting could start
on ground described as good or easier."

If you take a look back at Turftrax History you will see Ascots gone from being Soft to good to Firm in around 4-5 days(from waterlogged to g/f in 10!!)

The 3 days before and during the meeting is what really counts there, it dries up lightning fast

You need to go and have another look at last year's GC. Opinion Poll was given an atrocious ride by MB. He had him far too far back with F&G stealing the race from the front off a weak gallop. It was an abysmal ride that cost OP the race.

Zil, I wouldn't dispute what your saying about how quick the track dries out, but all the forecasts I've seen suggest there may well be no gap in the
weather for the track to dry out.
To ride genuinely soft it will probably have to rain the night before or on the day of racing but if they get little
sun its difficult to believe it will ride fast.
Johnny - fair point. Jockey gifted F&G a headstart off a slow early pace and made ground up in the faster part of the race.
If Overturn runs I doubt that will happen again. There has
to be a slight doubt as to whether F & G will see out 2  1/2m off a fast gallop.

Surely Eddie has to play stop start on Overturn, i can imagine him trying to set a steady pace, quickening down the Hill to Swinley Bottom, giving him a breather until around 3 and half out trying to stack em up and then kicking off the turn

predicting the ground with 2 weeks to go is a lottery. The weather forecasts change day to day, particularly when it comes to low & high pressure climates, they can change drastically within 48 hours. As Mark Fish or whatever his name is from the Beeb.

RP website 10/6 Asked about Opinion Poll's Sandown success, trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni said: "I think that was the best I've seen from him. To be fair, Frankie gave him a very good ride, giving the horse lots of confidence. They know each other so well and Frankie will be on the horse at Ascot."

9 runners declared. Dettori on Colour Vision could be significant given that he was supposed to ride OP.
Could indicate that he is improving all the time at home and is in great condition.
The horse could be anything and looks loaded with potential to me. If they get no more rain may
back him again.
Gulf of naples may well be used as a pacemaker.

Heard in bookies that DETTORI rides COLOUR VISION instead
of OPINION POLL, anyone know why?

RP 20/6 Simon Crisford said : "Shiekh Mohammed gave Frankie
the choice and he decided he would ride Colour Vision, but
that happened only on Monday evening. Mickael rode Opinion Poll
in last years Gold Cup, so he was always going to ride him if Frankie chose Colour Vision. as far as the jockeys who appeared in the paper are concerned,they are down to jockey's agents. Nothing was decided until last night."

Possibly 25mm of rain overnight

frankie has chosen the ride on colour vision ? is this true ?

Looks like the race is going to be run on testing ground like last year. Likely to favour F & G and
opinion poll . Colour vision could sink in the ground , won't be backing him again and have off loaded
some of the Ante-post money. Saddlers Rock could have ground problems as well.
Must be a possiblity Dettori could switch to ride Opinion Poll.

RP 21/6 Trainer comments re ground suitability
F & G - "He handles most types of ground but,ideally, we wouldn't want to see a lot of rain."
Colour Vision - "He wouldn't want the ground to be soft"
Saddlers rock - "Hopefully there won't be too much rain as he likes it good or faster"
Gulf of Naples (trainers son) -" If the rain comes it will really suit him"
Askar Tau - " Any rain Ascot has, won't play to his strengths"
Neeham _- "If it became soft it wouldn't be to his liking"
Caucus   "wouldn't want to see too much rain"

Come on the ****

Bit early for that sort of language, sintonian.

Cant even say F . A . G on here HM. Police gone mad.

Insane decision by Dettori to reject OP. Did he not watch last year's GC? He rides OP better than Barzelona, yet has handed MB the ride, so he can no doubt screw it up again by sitting too far out the back and letting F&G get 1st run from closer to the front.

FAME AND GLORY wins and wins easily,odds against still great value and i could not believe my eyes when i seen badbrokes were offering 10/3 on OPINION POLL in the without the favorite market and have lumped on that also

1ST F&G
2ND OPINION POLL

gl all

10-3 w/o the fav at laddies ew 123 with the dead 8 runners is my biggest bet of the meeting.

"badbrokes were offering 10/3 on OPINION POLL in the without the favorite market "

For once, we agree HRE.  Hopw come you couldn't start a thread about that ffs - I missed the price!!

Good luck to both of you, that was a wild price imo.

I nearly did start a thread on it master but i thought this would do,should be clear 2nd fav for my,still cant understand why there is 3 in front of him in the betting,he is clear 2nd best on the formbook and i am very happy with my position on this race and i dont care what garbage has come out in public,there is no way in hell frankie chose CV ahead of OP,he was told who he had to ride and thats that!

F&G ran a shocker there with no excuses. The race was a farce in terms of the pace but he is not devoid of speed. Perhaps he just had an off day?

perhaps,he has been knowen to have a few off days in his career including last year and the early pace didnt help matters

Opinion Poll made his challenge from same position F&G had in race. Again, best horese has finished 2nd. Barzelona is useless.

Barzelona is not useless, but when he learns to ride in England, he will be a great jockey,
at the moment it's just enthusiasm rather than intellect.

Barzelona is useless.


it was a shocking ride,if only frankie had of stayed onboard

F&G had off days last year yeah but on the big day he usually delivers. Interesting to see what connections say and where he heads next. I thought he showed speed lto. They might have a crack at a big 12f race.

Might be in a minority here, but I think F&G needs better ground - looked quite deep in Swinley Bottom

With less rain than anticipated overnight the ground wasn't that testing, though a shower before the race ensured it was Good to soft.
Good use of team tactics by the Godolphin team here. Dettori had Colour vision in the box seat all the way
and  the horse showed a tremendous attitude to fight back.
Opinion Poll ran his race and is very consistent and Saddlers Rock kept on well.
Despite the ground being faster than when he won last year Fame and Glory looked like he didn't want to
know when push came to shove, and may have had enough.
Difficult to tell what would have happened if they'd gone a decent pace and from that point of view
the form of the race may be unreliable.