Royal Ascot tips 2023, day 1: The 7 best bets for Tuesday's race card, including the Queen Anne Stakes
Though Frankie Dettori had already been crowned champion jockey twice, it was his astonishing feat of riding all seven winners on what is now Champions Day at Royal Ascot in September 1996 that propelled him from the back pages to the front.
And that’s how horse racing’s only household name will be remembered when he hangs up his riding boots – those “magnificent seven” and his flying dismounts.
In turn, Dettori will always have the fondest memories of Ascot, not just because of that career-changing autumn spectacular, but for his many glorious June days at the Royal fixture.
In all, 77 wins (more than twice as many as any other jockey currently operating, apart from Ryan Moore), including another surreal Ascot afternoon in 2019 when he reeled off the first four races to again threaten the entire bookmaking industry with financial meltdown.
Which brings us to Tuesday and what, if the 52-year-old Italian sticks to his retirement plan, will be his Royal Ascot farewell. He will want to milk it dry and he has the rides to do it straight from the outset.
- 2.30pm Inspiral 2-1
- 3.05pm River Tiber 15-8
- 3.40pm Manaccan (Each-Way) 5-1
- 4.20pm Cicero’s Gift 11-2
- 5.00pm Bring On The Night (Next Best) 9-4
- 5.35pm Saga 4-1
- 6.10pm Vauban (Best Bet) 15-8
Odds correct on 19 June via Oddschecker
According to the scaredy pants layers, Dettori’s best chance of the whole week is in the very first race of the meeting, the Queen Anne Stakes.
Inspiral has won six of her eight career starts and her best performance, by some margin, was when spread-eagling a strong international field in the Coronation Stakes at this meeting 12 months ago.
Subsequent form has been mixed, but the vibes coming out of John and Thady Gosden’s yard are positive and if she turns up for the opener back in top nick, she should have too much for the Godolphin pair Modern Games and Native Trail.
Dettori’s other first-day rides aren’t too dusty, either. Next up he partners Jessie Harrington’s Givemethebeatboys in the Coventry Stakes; before John Ryan’s Manaccan in the King’s Stand; Andrew Balding’s Chaldean in the St James’s Palace; and Saga for the Gosdens in the Wolferton Stakes
He then rounds the day off on what is presumably Willie Mulllins’ second string Absurde (Vauban is the hot favourite) in the Copper Horse Handicap.
Chaldean, winner of the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, faces off against Paddington, equally impressive in the Irish equivalent at the Curragh.
But the dark horse here is Cicero’s Gift. He looked a star in the making when extending his unbeaten record at Goodwood and though trainer Charlie Hills hasn’t publicly gone overboard on his chances against the two classic winners, he has entered him in all the marquee mile Group Ones this summer.
Rags-to-riches sprinter Highfield Princess is the form pick in the King’s Stand, but there are threats from all over the world, including Australia, from where Coolangatta and Cannonball launch potent raids.
Progressive three-year-old Dramatised is an obvious domestic danger, but Dettori might just sneak another precious win aboard dual course winner Manaccan.
Saga was one that got away from Dettori last year, a perceived poorly-judged ride being one of the reasons for his Gosden-enforced brief “sabbatical”.
Victory on the King’s runner, back in the groove with a near miss at Newmarket last month, would set matters right and further help towards another memorable day for the man still buzzing and bouncing and basking in the Ascot limelight.
