Today Nick Hardman of Betting School Insiders shares his selections for today's opener at Royal Ascot and tomorrows Wokingham.
You can get Nick's assessment of all the Ascot races for just £7.99 when you join Betting Insiders on this discounted trial – http://www.betting-school.com/799trial
Here's Nick…
I hope you were on our Royal Ascot selections Solow, Bossy Guest and Dutch Connection earlier in the week. Today we take a look at the best bets on Friday’s card at the Royal Meeting and finish off with a crack at the ultra-competitive Wokingham handicap on Saturday.
Friday’s opener is the Albany Stakes, a 6f Group 3 race for fillies. Acapulco left a lasting impression in winning The Queen Mary and trainer Wesley Ward has another two solid chances in the Albany.
Laxfield Road bolted up over 5f on her only course start to date and it was 11 lengths to the runner up. This race is 6f (and a stiff 6f at that) but if she lasts it out she could be hard to catch. Whatever, happens she looks sure to give everything else a good tow into the race. Stablemate Back At The Ranch is twice raced and did the business at the second time of asking. The trainer feels that the former may set this one up for the latter and I am happy to back them both at the prices.
I will be backing Back At The Ranch with PaddyPower who are offering a free bet refund if your horse is 2nd or 3rd in the opener.
Albany Stakes 2.30pm
Laxfield Road (now best price 13/2 with Bet 365)
Back At The Ranch @7/1 (PaddyPower)
The last of the big field races is Saturday’s Wokingham and it is a good one for trends analysis. This is usually run at break-neck speed from start to finish and stamina may come into play in the final furlong.
No surprise then that a lot of the previous winners and placed horses had decent form over 7f or further and that is one if the things I will be looking for.
4yo and 5yo runners have the best record (15 of the last 17 winners) and 17 of the last 19 winners arrived on the back of a top 4 finish with no fewer than 11 of those 17 winners occupying the top two places on their last start, so look for a horse in form.
Those to the fore in the betting do produce the majority of winners with 15 of the last 19 winners coming from the top 8 in the market
The last 3 winners were all rated 100+ and since the turn of the millennium we have had just two winners rated below 95. This year, all of the runners are rated 97 and higher so that does not help at all.
Lightly weighted horses do not have a good record. The last 3 winners all carried 9st 2lbs or more and the three before those carried between 8st 11lbs and 8st 13lbs. This year everything is set to carry 8st 12lbs or more so we can ignore weights and ratings from a trends perspective.
Horses having had a busy campaign have the worst record and those with more than 4 runs in the season are 0-67 and that might just help strike a line through a few in the field.
That leaves us with quite a few ticking plenty of boxes but Tatlisu, Huntsmans Close and Algar Lad look the best of the qualifiers.
Outside of the trends, Ninjago would be dangerous if rediscovering his past form and Gamesome and Kickboxer are another two who could outrun their odds.
Barracuda Boy is another to consider in a typically competitive renewal.
I will take the three trends horses against the field.
Wokingham (Saturday 5.00pm)
Huntsmans Close @10/1(1/4 odds, 5 places Bet365)
Tatlisu @12/1 (1/4 odds, 5 places Betfair)
Algar Lad @20/1 (1/4 odds, 5 places Bet365)