Royal Ascot 2025 Day 2 is here, and that Prince Of Wales’s Stakes looks like a contest to savour thanks to Los Angeles, Anmaat, See The Fire, and Map Of Stars.
As for yesterday, we hit the crossbar. Notable Speech and Power Blue missed out on the places by just one position, Believing was indeed on the wrong side of the track, and while both King’s Gambit and Andab both placed, the former could have been more competitive if not for the mountain he had to climb in the home straight.
Oh well, we move.
Royal Ascot 2025 Day 2 Selections
2:30 Ascot – True Love @ 11/4 with William Hill (1pt Win) & Secret Hideaway @ 22/1 with William Hill (4 places)
Embed from Getty ImagesShe’s short, and she’s been backed because of what happened in the Coventry Stakes yesterday, but I want to have something on True Love in the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes.
She was sent off the 2/5 favourite at Navan last month when beaten by her stablemate, Gstaad, and while it was a disappointment at the time, the form of the race doesn’t look too bad now!
Furthermore, I think her second to Lady Iman in the Listed First Flier Stakes on debut is a really good piece of form, as Lady Iman had race fitness and has gone on to win the Group 3 Blackbeard Fillies Sprint Stakes.
Furthermore, Power Blue, the third, was fourth in the Coventry Stakes yesterday. I was a fan of her at 6/1 on Tuesday evening, and while she is a lot shorter, I’ll still keep her on the team.
Much like the Duke Of Cambridge Stakes, which I’ll talk about later, I’m taking an each-way option in the shape of Secret Hideaway.
I had considered Harry’s Girl and Society Kiss originally, but on a form line through Ruby’s Angel (second to Harry’s Girl at Newmarket in April and third to Society Kiss at Ascot last month), Secret Hideaway has every right to beat these two.
After her seasonal debut at Ripon when she probably needed the run, she went to York and looked good on the eye when beating Harry’s Girl in the Listed Marygate Fillies’ Stakes.
She got plenty of cover and stayed on stoutly, and she certainly wasn’t stopping at the line, which makes me think she was simply the better horse on the day.
Box 18 should be no major issue, and while a few of these could go off like scolded cats, she will hopefully be the one staying on at the line.
3:40 Ascot – Fallen Angel @ 10/3 with William Hill (1pt Win) & Elmalka @ 12/1 with William Hill (1pt EW) (3 places)
Embed from Getty ImagesI’m chancing two in the Group 2 Duke Of Cambridge Stakes with Fallen Angel and Elmalka.
The case for the former looks fairly solid, as she is a two-time Group 1 winner who has some solid form as a three-year-old.
Running into Porta Fortuna, Friendly Soul, and Sparkling Plenty in her final two starts of last season looks like good form, and while Running Lion was ahead of her in the Prix de l’Opera, a first try at 10 furlongs can be to blame. She was ahead with 150m to go, but the stronger stayers got her in the end.
Her Lockinge Stakes run 32 days ago will hopefully put her spot on fitness-wise, and she did look very good in the Irish 1000 Guineas.
However, I will cover Elmalka as she looks like a big price.
She has a great form line through Ramatuelle, an impressive winner of the Prix de la Foret last season, from both the Newmarket 1000 Guineas (when beating her) and Coronation Stakes (when finishing fourth).
Those same races also give her good form with See The Fire, a good winner of the Middleton Stakes recently, as she was ahead of her at Royal Ascot before finishing two places behind in the Nassau Stakes.
She needed her first run of the season at Newmarket, and then she arguably improved to finish a staying-on fourth in the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan at the end of last month. Finishing behind Sosie, Sardinian Warrior, and Horizon Dore is not something to be sniffed at.
She showed that she handles Ascot in the Coronation Stakes last year, and a more favourable draw in one (compared to seven from 12 months ago) might also help her.
Elmalka certainly looks like a big price.
5:00 Ascot – Epictetus @ 18/1 with William Hill (5 places) – 1pt EW
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Hunt Cup is a cavalry charge, but I think Epictetus warrants significant respect on his second start in handicap company.
He had a massive 350 days away from the track when fifth at Newbury last month on his stable debut for Jamie Osborne, and he wasn’t disgraced at all under an empathetic William Carver.
As Osborne has said in the Racing Post, that should bring him on a bunch, and he has now dropped to a mark of 101, 12lbs below his peak rating achieved in September 2023.
In that 2023 season, he won a Listed race at Epsom, finished fifth in a hot renewal of the Dante Stakes (The Foxes, White Birch, Continuous, and Passenger), finished fifth in the French Derby to Ace Impact, and won the Group 3 Thoroughbred Stakes at Goodwood, beating Nostrum.
He was tried in Group 1 company twice by his former trainers John & Thady Gosden, so they must have thought plenty of him, and this recent run at Newbury showed enough to suggest that the ability is still there under the bonnet.
With a nice draw in 29, he will obviously need some luck, but he travels well into his races, and this could be an expert bit of race planning from his connections.
