Royal Ascot Tips Days One, Two and Three

Expert Royal Ascot tips and race previews for the first three days—get ahead with our top selections for Tuesday to Thursday at Ascot 2025.

TUESDAY (Day 1)

2.30 - Queen Anne Stakes (Group 1)
John Gosden recently described this race as a ‘humdinger’ to kickstart the Royal meeting, and he isn’t wrong! The first four home in last month’s Lockinge all take aim at each other once again, yet it is Rosallion who tops the market, last year’s St. James’s Palace winner. With that being his first start since last June, you would expect a great amount of improvement to come from Richard Hannon’s stable star who bids to maintain his unbeaten record at Ascot. However, the other horse who made his seasonal reappearance at Newbury is the one who interests me for a yard who in recent years have had a terrible record at Royal Ascot - NOTABLE SPEECH. You may be thinking, why on earth would I fancy a horse coming from a yard that hasn’t saddled a winner since 2023? Well, in my opinion, I think he is the classiest horse in the race, as proven by his Guineas success last year. Coming into the St. James’s Palace last year, he had already had four runs under his belt and progressively improved after each run. If last year is anything to go by, he will come here much more fresh and with the forecast looking likely to aid his chances, he gets the nod. Lead Artist and Dancing Gemini, first and second in the Lockinge, will both fancy their chances, especially the former. He had plenty of time to throw the towel in once headed by Dancing Gemini but when asked to do so, knuckled down determinedly to win under Oisin Murphy. It’s a big week for Colin Keane who has recently been appointed as Juddmonte’s retained jockey and it would be a memorable start if he goes on to win the opener at Royal Ascot.

3.40 - King Charles III Stakes (Group 1)
Fast and furious. Blink and you’ll miss it. One of the fastest races in the world which sees a rematch between last year’s winner Asfoora and her defeated opponents in Believing and runner-up, Regional. All three are extremely quick and with Big Evs absent and a lack of three-year-olds looking to take their chances, you would imagine all three will fancy their chances. Preference would be with the current favourite though, who represents the Australians for Henry Dwyer - a yard who broke their Royal maiden last year. She may well end up wearing blinkers which apparently worked well so you would imagine they will stay on. Oisin Murphy gets the leg up. But, Karl Burke’s new Wathnan Racing purchase NIGHT RAIDER is lurking. He has become a winning-machine on the all-weather and whilst that won’t help him on Tuesday, he needed to prove he could dance at the top-level in the Duke Of York and he did just that. Finishing third behind Inisherin and a top-class filly in Flora Of Bermuda, after making all of the running will stand him in good stead but he must settle if he wants to be competitive. That was over six furlongs and a drop back to five may be the making of him so I’m willing to give him a go. I will also take Ralph Beckett’s STARLUST as a flyer against the field. He has some solid form over five furlongs and ran with credit in the Temple Stakes and this Breeders Cup winner is far too big a price at 14/1.

4.20 - St James’s Palace Stakes (Group 1)
This could be the best race of the week as we see a scintillating rematch between the British, French and Irish Guineas winners. Ruling Court, who missed The Derby with deteriorating ground being the issue, won’t have those problems and will look to follow-up his English Guineas success. However, whilst he won on merit, it is hard to look past FIELD OF GOLD who was unfortunate not to win at Newmarket but destroyed a good field in Ireland. Colin Keane, successful on him at the Curragh, will take the ride and having had an enjoyable time of things over there, will be looking to repeat the same tactics on Tuesday. French Derby winner, Henri Matisse, had his form boosted in the French Derby when his stablemate Camille Pissarro won in good style at Chantilly. Whilst many are doubting the form from Chantilly, it will be interesting to see how he fares against the top two in the market. Rashabar could be an interesting play each-way although he does have a bit to find on ratings. He was a winner at this meeting last year and seemingly doesn’t know how to run a bad race having earned nearly £300,000 in prize money.

WEDNESDAY (Day 2)
4.20 - Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (Group 1)

After Economics’ notable withdrawal in recent days, Los Angeles has found himself at the top of the market for Aidan O’Brien. He enjoyed a magnificent year last season and has kickstarted his campaign with two successes including most recently at the Curragh where he outbattled ANMAAT in the late stages. Despite coming out second-best that day, you would have to be absolutely delighted with Owen Burrows’s horse who loomed up outside the eventual winner and seemingly tired late on. One thing Jim Crowley won’t be doing next week, is engaging with Ryan Moore too early but can be confident that with racecourse fitness on his side now, can reverse the form with the favourite. French raider Map Of Stars boasts a career record of five wins from seven starts and is two from three this season after being narrowly defeated by Sosie on his first start at Group 1 level. He will be another who comes fast and late and his trainer Francis Graffard believes the good ground forecasted will only aid his chances.

THURSDAY (Day 3)

4.20 - Gold Cup (Group 1)
Kyprios made this division his own but after retirement due to injury, his stablemate ILLINOIS has big boots to fill to keep the Gold Cup back at Ballydoyle. Aidan O’Brien, speaking to the press at The Derby, explained how the pecking order had changed following the news of Kyprios and was quick to stress that Illinois is well up to establishing himself at the top level. He should be able to stay the distance given he was runner-up in the St.Leger behind Jan Brueghel and shaped in the Prix Chaudenay as a thorough stayer when winning. His seasonal reappearance at Chester beating course specialist Al Qareem may not be the best form on show but he couldn’t have done it much easier and I expect him to win this. Candelari represents a new threat in the division following his Group 1 success at Longchamp last time out. He looked a lot classier than his rivals however a negative stat against him would be that no horse in the past 20 renewals has won the race having not ran a timespeed of 74+ in their last three runs. Sweet William and Trawlerman represent the John & Thady Gosden outfit and preference is with the latter who only went down narrowly to Kyprios in last year’s renewal.