Royal Ascot tips: Saturday best bets from Dave Nevison
Our resident website tipster Dave Nevison has a crack at the latest Paddy’s Pick 5 competition and shares his best bets for Saturday’s action. Don’t forget to enter this weekend’s game – there’s a £50,000 prize fund up for grabs and it’s absolutely free to play!
2.30 Ascot: Pearls And Rubies
She seems a very likely winner.
Pearls And Rubies won over five furlongs last time, a trip way too short, and it is to her great credit that she made a winning debut and one that augured very well for the future. As it stands, that Navan form looks decent and the fact that she overcame trouble in running suggests she might be out of the top drawer.
Aidan O’Brien steps up Pearls And Rubies fully two furlongs in distance for this second run and this is much more in keeping with her pedigree. She’s related to two-year-old winners over this trip and further and her dam Diamondsandrubies was a Group One winner at 10 furlongs.
John and Thady Gosden have no issue with stepping a horse straight from handicap company to Group level as the trainers have demonstrated with Courage Mon Ami in the Gold Cup already this week.
Covey actually makes this slightly more modest leap to Group Three company rather than very top grade and he certainly looked up to it at Haydock last time. He was backed all morning as if defeat was not possible, despite a seemingly competitive field in a big £100,000 handicap, and he showed why by dominating throughout and winning by 3 ½ lengths.
Covey drops down in trip by a furlong here, but he would have won at any distance last time and I’m not concerned.
The Aussie sprinter bids to go two places better than last year when he was beaten less than a length under Jamie Spencer and looks poised to run another big race.
Artorius ran in mid-March last season in Australia before coming across to the UK and has done the same this year but he might be in better form this time, having won a Group One at Randwick already.
His running style, coming from behind and ideally off a very strong pace, is very well suited to Ascot and he clearly goes well after a three-month break. Crack Australia-based jockey James Macdonald takes over now aboard the horse that is probably his best chance of winning the British Group One that the international party are all aiming for.
4.20 Ascot: Free Wind
Another John and Thady Gosden runner on a roll, this Group One-winning mare can beat some very high-class male runners in the Hardwicke Stakes.
Free Wind won the Middleton Stakes at York quite comfortably on her reappearance, beating Rogue Millennium by ½ a length. That filly went on to score here on Wednesday so the form may be stronger than first appeared.
It will be tough to beat the likes of Hukum here but Free Wind has everything in her favour, with the mares’ allowance a significant plus and she just keeps on improving.
Frankie Dettori will obviously be on his game for his final day at Royal Ascot, so we can expect utmost assistance from the saddle and we’re on another massive trier for sure.
6.10 Ascot: Typewriter
Not many runners are arriving for the concluding Queen Alexandra Stakes in top form, but once again the fillies’ allowance plays a part in making Typewriter my selection here.
Oisin Murphy has not had a brilliant Royal Ascot as I write before racing on Friday, but the three-time champion gets on a filly who has run really well - and notably stayed on well - on both of her latest starts so she might be in better form than most.
Typewriter was pretty well backed upped in grade last time and, while this finale is the longest race in the calendar and it is difficult to say she will stay, trainer Andrew Balding believes she is a prospect for this marathon and that is good enough for me.
