Coventry Stakes Odds: River Tiber and Asadna dominate juvenile betting for Royal Ascot day one thriller
We are less than a month away from the start of Royal Ascot and star performers are beginning to push their names into the limelight ahead of the five-day Flat extravaganza and one horse that has caught the eye recently is Asadna, whose blistering debut propelled him into the Coventry Stakes reckoning. However, George Boughey's rocket will have a lively adversary in the shape of Aidan O'Brien's River Tiber and we take a look at the latest Coventry Stakes odds here...
Respected horse racing firm Timeform handed Asadna a whopping mark of 109 for his blistering debut at Ripon last week as the George Boughey-trained youngster showed a rocketing turn of foot to obliterate his rivals by 12 lengths to storm into the Royal Ascot picture. Not since 2016 has a two-year-old been handed such a high mark by Timeform prior to Royal Ascot (Caravaggio 116) and Asadna was instantly slashed in the betting for next month's 6f Coventry Stakes.
The son of Mehmas was available at double-figured odds prior to that Ripon romp, but such was his brilliance that day he was constantly backed into 4/1 second favourite for the Coventry and will head to the Royal meeting as one of the most exciting youngsters set to strut his stuff. The Coventry has been a race synonymous with precocious sprinters and Asadna has all the makings of being a really smart performer for the Boughey team and he has to be respected.
However, the Coventry Stakes king in Aidan O'Brien, who has won the event a record-breaking nine times, will have a strong team heading to the Berkshire venue on day one of the meeting and his exciting youngster River Tiber still heads the betting for the event, and will look to hand the Ballydoyle supremo a 10th win in the contest.
River Tiber produced an equally dominant display on racecourse debut earlier in the season when storming to a 10-length victory at Navan in late April on good to soft ground, while the son of Wootton Bassett then built on that with an equally impressive display at Naas in much quicker ground a few days ago.
He didn't win by a wide margin that day, but he showed he can act on the firmer ground, so whatever conditions are thrown up on day one of Royal Ascot then River Tiber will be able to deliver the goods. As short as 2/1 with some bookmakers for the Coventry Stakes, River Tiber has to undoubtedly go down as the one they all have to beat, such is the O'Brien record in the race, but one thing is for sure that they both are exciting colts that can serve up a real thriller in this event.
A race that threw up a 150/1 winner in Nando Parrado only a few years ago, the Coventry Stakes can be a race that has notable surprise packages, so the betting a month out is fascinating as more and more two-year-olds throw their hat into the ring, but both River Tiber and Asadna have shown their qualities on the track for all to see, so have to be the pair to beat!
