Royal Ascot 2025 Day 1 Selections | Believe the King

This is it, Royal Ascot 2025 is here. The next five days from the Royal Meeting should be horse racing at its absolute finest, and I can’t wait for it to get underway.

For the first day of action, I have five selections to consider, including four each-way picks.

Let’s dive in.

Royal Ascot 2025 Day 1 Selections

2:30 Ascot – Notable Speech @ 6/1 with William Hill (3 places) – 1pt EW

I’m starting Royal Ascot 2025 with a bet in one of the most competitive races of the week, the Queen Anne, as I’ve been in the Notable Speech camp for a while.

Both he and Rosallion are closely matched on form based on this year’s Lockinge and last year’s 2000 Guineas, and although Godolphin’s Dubawi four-year-old was just nudged out by Richard Hannon’s Irish 2000 Guineas winner at Newbury last month, I thought he shaped with plenty of promise.

Stop the race with one furlong to go, and he looks like the winner. Sean Levey is rowing away on Rosallion, while William Buick is coaxing Notable Speech into the race up the rail.

Ultimately, a lack of race fitness meant he couldn’t sustain his effort, but I think connections knew this was going to happen based on how pleased Charlie Appleby was post-race.

As for last year, it’s hard to forget just how good he was in both the 2000 Guineas and Sussex Stakes; he showed a devastating turn of foot on both occasions, and he loves quick ground.

Any number of horses could win this year’s Queen Anne; it really is a race that should be great to watch. However, at the prices, Notable Speech makes a good deal of sense, and coming out of box six should give Buick a plethora of options to choose from mid-race.

3:05 Ascot – Andab @ 12/1 General & Power Blue @ 16/1 with William Hill (4 places) – 0.5pt EW

The Group 2 Coventry Stakes is always a fun race to work out, and I’m splitting stakes on Power Blue and Andab, the two horses who finished behind Albert Einstein in the Group 3 Marble Hill Stakes.

For a while, Albert Einstein looked like the number one Ballydoyle juvenile heading into Royal Ascot, and while his absence from this race is sad, the second and third behind him at the Curragh last month ran good races.

Starting with Power Blue, Adrian Murray thinks “he’s one of our best chances of the week”, according to the Racing Post, and even though he was early off the bridle, he stayed on well under pressure.

He ran on through the line well over six furlongs, and his dam, Visions, stayed eight furlongs, so a stiff six at Ascot could suit nicely.

Furthermore, I also like his form with Lady Iman from the Listed First Flier Stakes as she looks like one of the best juveniles in Ireland this season.

As for Andab, in a recent At The Races stable tour, Joseph O’Brien confirmed that he had a “little hold-up in between his two runs that probably cost him inside the final furlong”.

With this in mind, it makes sense that he travelled like the winner with two furlongs to go and didn’t really find, and he looked so good on his debut in April over the same course and distance.

By Saxon Warrior out of the Invincible Spirit mare Tickled Pink, he is a full brother to Victoria Road, who won at the Breeders’ Cup in 2022 for Aidan O’Brien, so he should like fast ground.

Both Andab and Power Blue look like nice horses at each-way prices, so I’ll play them both.

3:40 Ascot – Believing @ 9/2 with William Hill – 1pt Win

She was fourth in this race last year, but Believing has every right to go three places better in the Group 1 King Charles III Stakes.

She had such a luckless season last year despite winning a Group 2 and placing in three Group 1s, and this all started with her effort on the opening day of last year’s Royal Meeting.

The Mehmas mare found herself on the wrong side of the track and off the pace, so she did well to close on the pace setters.

We don’t yet know if she will have the luxury of positive track position, but she is drawn in one, next to the notorious front runner, Bucanero Fuerte, and Balmoral Lady (stall four) who has also set the pace in some of her previous races.

She was closing on Big Evs and Asfoora in the Group 2 King George Qatar Stakes at Glorious Goodwood before finishing second to Bradsell in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes, again from the wrong side of the track. This all came before her second in the Group 1 Flying Five Stakes, behind Bradsell again, and she found herself on the far side when the winner came up the near rail.

That’s a long string of tough luck.

On her final start of last year, she had a luckless run through the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye, though her performance was still very promising.

Collating this all together, as well as her recent win in the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint, she should have a great chance of winning at Ascot on Tuesday in what could be her swansong run before becoming a broodmare.

5:35 Ascot – King’s Gambit @ 9/1 with Boylesports (4 places) – 1pt EW

I’m slightly taking on trust that the real King’s Gambit didn’t turn up to Newbury last month, because on form, he must have a nice chance in the Listed Wolferton Stakes.

He ran a sterling race in the Group 3 Hampton Court Stakes last season, and he probably should have won, but he was given plenty to do from the rear of the field.

Beating Bellum Justum and finishing second to Jayarebe is a nice piece of form, as is his second to Alflaila in the Group 2 York Stakes and his third to Los Angeles and Illinois in the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes.

Los Angeles is now a warm favourite to win the Group 1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, Illinois is favourite to win the Gold Cup, Jayarebe won a Group 2 two starts after Ascot last year, and Bellum Justum has won a Grade 3 and Group 2 since.

Although he was poor at Newbury, he looked a bit too free, and that could have been due to the combination of first-time headgear and the three-month break. The blinkers have been whipped off, and he should hopefully settle better with a run under his belt.

Stall 12 is no issue as well, as he should be able to get into a nice early position and not have to worry about being boxed in on the round course.

As an each-way proposition, he seems like a fair bet.