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Royal Ascot Day 5

What a great week it has been!! There have been many highlights throughout the week - Battaash winning a deserved first Group 1 at Ascot, Stradivarius giving us one of the best staying performances of any era, Jim Crowley on practically everything he has touched and Hollie Doyle's amazing ride on Scarlet Dragon. Plenty of horses have confirmed their status at the top of their division and many more have shown us a glimpse of their potential to become stars of the future. Today gives one of last season's stars, Pinatubo, the chance to prove he can be superstar at 3. It is a shot at redemption after an underwhelming performance in the Guineas. For what it's worth, I think he will win, but the price has gone and I'm happy to watch the race.

For the first bet of the day, I'm quite confident about the chance of Aplomb in the opening 6f handicap at 12.40. He produced two excellent efforts at the track last season, finding only one too good on each occasion. His neck defeat to Tinto in October was a particularly fine run and they pulled well clear. Tinto is now rated 9lb higher following a win on his reappearance and Aplomb can run off just a 2lb higher mark here. His reappearance looked an excellent prep, given a considerate ride over an inadequate 5f on good to firm. As we saw throughout the Newmarket Guineas meeting, it was hard to make ground for hold up horses but Aplomb managed to do so, nearest at the line. Today's conditions should be much more suitable and it is hard to see him not going very close. 

The two-year-old races look difficult with so little to go on (both favourites appear the most likely winner) and I'm not sure what to make of Quadrilateral in the Coronation Stakes following her run in the Guineas. As already mentioned the St. James' Palace will be a race I'm happy to watch so the final bet today comes in the Diamond Jubilee at 3.35. This is not a vintage renewal in my opinion and I think Sceptical could be found out over this stiff 6 furlong trip, although it would be another great story. The best single piece of form comes from last year's renewal in the shape of Dream of Dreams' neck second to the sprint king Blue Point. There isn't another horse in this field that would get close to Blue Point and I am hoping he returns to that form which would make him hard to beat. His form tailed off afterwards, but a couple of those efforts were on unsuitably heavy ground and Ascot suits his running style. 


1 pt win Aplomb (5/1 general) Ascot 12.40 *use BOG firms

0.5 pt win Dream of Dreams (7/1 general) Ascot 3.35 *use BOG firms


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