Royal Ascot Meeting 2007
The Royal Ascot Meeting gets under way next Tuesday 19th June 2007. The St James’s Palace Stakes is the feature race on the first day. Cockney Rebel will be a warm favourite for this but might be worth opposing with Dutch Art. He raced on the wrong side in the 2000 Guineas and will come into this race a fresh horse. The feature race on the second day is the Prince of Wales Stakes. Notnowcato ran in this last year and has since twice beaten Dylan Thomas who is sure to be favourite. Notnowcato could be the value bet.
On Thursday Yeats is quoted as odds on to repeat his win of last year in the Ascot Gold Cup. Sergeant Cecil has already proved he is as good as ever and might be the value bet. The roof will come off the new stand if he wins. Friday has the Coronation Stakes as its feature. Finsceal Beo will be a warm order for this. It would be great for this filly to prove how tough she is and win this race. In the King Edward VII Stakes on Friday Salford is fancied to run well.
My very first visit to the Ascot racecourse was in 1959 for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at the end of July. It is all a bit of a blur now but I think this was the day that the late Manny Mercer (brother of Joe) was killed in the parade for the race when his horse slipped and fell on him. The meeting was abandoned after Alcide had won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. The late Manny Mercer had already ridden 100 winners that season and was on his way to becoming Champion Jockey.
My first visit to Royal Ascot was in 1962. Rather foolishly I decided to go to all four days. This involved making a four mile bicycle ride to pick up my best friend Brenda, then a one mile walk to the coach station. The stage coach journey was about 70 miles and seemed to take forever. The return journey seemed to take even longer and I would get back to my home at about midnight. I would have to be up at about 6.30am to do it all again ! I was suffering badly with hay fever at the time so after four days I was in need of a good rest. The racing is a blur apart from Trelawny winning the Ascot Stakes on the Tuesday and then the Queen Alexander Stakes on the Friday. He was ridden both times by the late Scobie Breasley and it was a great training performance by the late George Todd.
I love watching the staying races and also find they are a good betting medium. There have been some good reliable stayers over the years. Lets hope the best horse wins the Ascot Gold Cup.
For all the runners and riders with the jockey's colours go to Paddy Power and click on "Horse Racing".