Ascot today

lots of racing today and after more rain and some blustery wind, the ground will be very soft almost everywhere. We shall start with Ascot which has a strong Saturday card with the big betting race of the day, the valuable Victoria Cup over 7 furlongs at 16.50 CET. With 29 runners on the straight course, this is a real cavalry charge. Most of these have met before, íncluding Excellent Guest (George Margarson/ Tom Queally), who won last year (on much faster ground) from Berriewhittle (David Barron/ Jack Garrity), while Heavens Guest (Rochatd Fahey/ George Chaloner) won a similar race over this CD last October, with several of these behind. On both occasions Loving Spirit (Jamie Toller/ Robert Tart) and Redvers (Ed Vaughan/ Freddie Tylicki) were close up, and they are both better handicapped today. They are on our short list, together with Ayaar (Luca Cumani/ Frankie Dettori), who won the Zukunfts.Rennen in 2012 and is a specialist for the distance.
The listed race over 1 1/2 miles at 15.40 is tricky, as some of the form looks rather unreliable and some of them will not like the soft going.. Harris Tweed (William Haggas/ George Baker) for instance is the best horse in the field and goes on the ground, but isvery inconsistent and ran really badly last time. In the right mood, he would win this, but we shall take a chance on the only filly in the field Cocktail Queen (David Elsworth/ Queally).

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Hamelin - Glorious Protector - Semeen
2. Race: Pether`s Moon - Harris Tweed - Gatewood
3. Race: Ribbons - Fashion Line - Feedyah
4. Race: Purcell - Loving Spirit - Brownsea Brink
5. Race: Sunset Sail - The Paco Kid - Winslow
6. Race: Multitask - Intrinsic - Kinglami