Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Royal Ascot 2011 - Thursday is Gold Cup Day

The highlight on Ladies' Day is the Gold Cup run over two and a half miles; fifteen go to post. Last year's 20/1 winner Rite Of Passage unfortunately misses the event through injury.

The market has something of a lop-sided look with layers going 6/1 the field bar one; the one in question is Aidan O'Brien's Fame And Glory. The breeding boys believe the Ballydoyle bay should stay but I don't feel inclined to find out at odds of just 7/4. He didn't impress everyone when taking the Saval Beg Stakes at Leopardstown two and a half weeks ago and has a further six furlongs to travel here but on official ratings the favourite has at least five pounds in hand over all tomorrow's opponents.

As I've done with several long distance Flat races this term, I'm concentrating on horses with previous form over the jumps. Blue Bajan finished down the field in the 2009 Champion Hurdle behind Punjabi; he was subsequently off the track for over a year but appears rejuvenated in the care of David O'Meara. Connections have supplemented the gelding for this after his victory in Sandown's Henry II Stakes. Kasbah Bliss has finished second to Inglis Drever and fourth to Big Buck's in two renewals of Cheltenham's World Hurdle but has never quite lived up to the potential and came home sixth in this last year. The Betchworth Kid has bit and pieces of form - a close fourth to Recession Proof in Newbury's totesport Trophy last Feburary reads well but he isn't consistent and doesn't really strike me as the winner. If in the mood he'll stay and appears to have shown better form with some cut in the ground.

I'm not convinced I've mentioned the winner, so I'll have an each-way wager on Blue Bajan. He has form with a couple of the more fancied runners - William Hill's 14/1 looks reasonable value.

1 comment:

GeeDee said...

Well, Fame And Glory (11/8f) made a fool of those who believed he might not stay - he took the Gold Cup with a fine performance, beating 16/1 chance Opinion Poll three lengths. Inevitably the winner is likely to be compared with Yeats who famoulsy won four Gold Cups for Ballydoyle.

Selection Blue Bajan (11/1) was struggling five from home and was beaten some twenty lengths in tenth place.