Rest of Royal Ascot: day three

Today´s card kicks off with the Group Two Norfolk Stakes for 2yo´s over 5 furlongs at 15.30 CET. 12 runners, 8 of them last-time-out winners and very little collateral form to go on. Richard Hannon is having a great run with his 2yo´s (older horses too!) so unbeaten Zebedee (Richard Hughes) obviously has a chance, but he has not run for two months, and we prefer juveniles with recent form, such as Godolphin´ s Al Aasifh (Saeed bin Suroor/ Frankie Dettori), an easy winner last week at Haydock, and Dinkum Diamond (Henry Candy/ Dane O´ Neill), who has won both starts in good style, including at Sandown 3 weeks ago.

The field for the Ribblesdale Stakes for 3yo fillies over 1 1/2 miles at 16.05 includes several fillies that ran in the Oaks, with 5th-placed Gertrude Bell (John Gosden/ William Buick) doing the best of them. Hibaayeb (bin Suroor/ Dettori), 3rd to the smart Sarafina in France as well as Middle Club (Hannon/ Hughes) and Principal Role (Henry Cecil/ Tom Queally) must also be considered.

Balding has another good chance in the Britannia Stakes, the big handicap of the day for 3yo´s over the straight mile at 17.25. In fact he has four of them, but Balducci (Fortune) seems the best of them after his good win at Haydock from Al Farahidi (Mark Johnston/ Greg Fairley), who is now better off at the weights but has been beaten again since. Balducci has plenty of scope for improvement, but it is hard to say if his draw in the middle is a problem; yesterday the far side (high numbers) had a huge advantage, but that may not be the case again as the track has been watered since.

The final two races are also restricted to 3yo´s. The listed Hampton Court Stakes is over 10 furlongs, and the Queen has possibilities of winning this with Quadrille (Hannon/ Hughes), who has never yet been out of the first two. Fencing Master (Aidan O´Brien/ Johnny Murtagh) has the highest rating here, having run in the English and Irish Guineas, but we are wary of this stable´s runners at present, and Afsare (Luca Cumani/ Kieren Fallon) and Film Score (Mahmoud al Zarooni/ Dettori) probably have better prospects. Victories for the Queen at " her" meeting are always very popular, and she has another chance in the King George V Stakes at 18.35, a 1 1/2 mile handicap, with Tactician (Michael Bell/ Hayley Turner). This is another tricky race, and London Stripe (Stoute/ Moore) and Life and Soul (Amanda Perrett/ Paul Hanagan) also come on to our short list.