Ascot Day 1

never seen it so quiet on the eve of royal ascot, palace pier, battash, love, strad acca for me over the week,

Always interesting Feltfair.

Couple in there I like,quality everywhere on the card, GL.

Very quiet Elisjohn .... I must be in the minority,all I see are dangers everywhere.

Intrigued by the price variation in PP/Battash,both well ahead on the official figures,no doubt plenty will be trying to get those two across the line in multiples etc, GL.

nocturnal, i meant never seen it so quiet on the forum re r ascot

Aye ... Was agreeing with you.

I saw that post on main forum re bbc coverage,so much more in those days concentrated on the horses and connections,rather than the semi-circle of buffoons who now think they take pride of place.

A return to at least acknowledging winning/placed owners would be a step in the right direction.Never easy to please everyone,the lack of coverage watching the horses going to the start/parade ring etc ... truly mind boggling,I do wonder how that affects ratings.

Blonde moment with Battash above,forgetting the WFA for the 3 yr olds,been a long day

New place  terms
Masseto 5 places
trumpet Man/Coeur De Lion 7 places
Juan Elcano 5 places
Hochfeld 6 places

Trumpet Man N/R. First day, trying not to force it, I can pick holes in all my selections. Leave the real money for another day.
1.Palace Pier to win by 2 or more @ 6/5, should win but that might be asking too much.
2. Kaufyman - Bold move as could have run in the Albany, risk of weather perhaps final decision. Not sure what to make of Wesley's bullish-ish quotes.
3. Winter Power - unsuited to the stiff finish?
4. Lucky Vega - Drawn 11, clearly trained on to a degree, might not progress again. off to stud.
5. N/R
6. Global Storm - plenty going for him, no obvious reason I can see why he wouldn't run a good one.
7. Patrick Sarsfield - Never let me down but ground maybe too quick.

6 & 7 I will put place money on, the rest not worth the trouble.

Palace Pier, apparently the best miler to have contested this race since Frankel, according to Timeform. For me, on this season's performances I don't even rate him quite as highly as I rated Ribchester going into this race. Nevertheless, he's a true Gp1 performer in what looks a substandard renewal. It looks like it would need a below par effort for him to get beat today. I have his Lockinge performance 3lbs behind his Sandown win, but it looked more of a case of him winning comfortably last time, rather than a horse on the way down from a peak, so I won't be opposing him even at these odds.

I've said before that I believe Battaash has been overrated on occasions. I had him running 6lbs below his best mark last year but he got away with it, being able to win Gp1s that were Gp1s in name only, the opposition was dire. At the age of 7 he ought to be even more vulnerable, but top sprinters are thin on the ground at the moment. I wouldn't be absolutely confident in the speed figure I have Winter Power running to last time, but the figure I have pencilled in would see her beat last year's Battaash comfortably, and even run him close at his best on these weight terms. At the price I have to bet her and hope that she'll see out this stiffer 5f.

I think Poetic Flare has had a couple of hard races in a short time so would be surprised if he ran as well again so soon here. Lucky Vega's Guineas form gives him a good chance but to me he looks to have gone backwards a little from his best last year, and when I've seen him this season he looks to have not grown. Mostahdaf needs to improve. As an unbeaten runner you couldn't rule that out, but he doesn't look as likely an improver as Gosden's past winners.

In my view, the horse with the very best form is Battleground, but that was last year, so just a small bet in the hope he can recapture that here.

Money told a story their figgis with winter power. I still think she’s good but she didn’t seem to stride out on that going.
Be another day pal

Part of me thinks she may be a small field bully but that isn’t proven yet…ground definitely an issue for me

Yes harry, her last race was a bit inconclusive anyway but she's obviously not up to that class, not with a contested lead on a stiff track anyway. Poetic Flare ran like the previous efforts were just warm ups

Yes poetic lit up the track, like you say just been prepping…I couldn’t believe I done my money on master of the seas. He was clearly in a fight with Ivan drago

I think they call it conditioning figgis

Well done on the winners today felt nice

Decent start Felt .... WP