Ascot Gold Cup Betting Tips – Stradivarius Seeks Five-Timer at Royal Meeting
Ascot Betting Tips · Thursday, 17th Jun 2021 - 16:15
Author:
Jamie Clark
Publish Date:
Tuesday, 15th Jun 2021
Topic:
Horsebetting Tip
Experiences:
Our experienced editor
Topic:
Horsebetting Tip
Experiences:
Our experienced editor
Jamie Clark was Sports Editor of Coral bookmakers between 2014 and 2017 during their merger with Labrokes and a key period for the British betting industry. Working as a bookie’s runner on the point to point circuit in the Midlands and at Market Rasen Racecourse where his late godfather had a trackside pitch growing up, he has had ties to horse racing all of his life. A regular visitor to Cheltenham during the National Hunt season and York over the summer, he has been involved in Horsebetting.com since its inception. Jamie now brings you his take on major news stories from the racing world and those all-important betting tips.
All 2021 Ascot Gold Cup betting tips surround Stradivarius, the superstar stayer who has won the 2m 4f Group 1 feature contest on Ladies Day in each of the last three years. He is one of the all-time great Flat stayers and out to match Yeats with four consecutive wins. I backed him ante-post at 2/1 when there was some juice in his odds for a fifth win in the meeting. Although a worthy short-price favourite at 10/11 with Bet365, we’re focusing on others in the race this year.
Ascot Gold Cup betting tips – Trueshan the most solid alternative
STRADIVARIUS needs no introduction to followers of British Flat horse racing. He’s completed a hat-trick in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot and won the Goodwood Cup four times. It would be no surprise if he won the feature race on Thursday (16:15) again. Of the main market rivals to Stradivarius, TRUESHAN is the most interesting challenger.
Trained by Alan King, this five-year-old Planteur gelding took his form to a new level with victory in the Group 2 Long Distance Cup over 2m at this venue on soft ground in the autumn. He got the better of Stradivarius that day with the caveat that John Gosden’s star made a quick turnout after the Arc.
Trueshan wasn’t stopping at the line, pulling 7 1/2 lengths of dual Irish St Leger heorine Search For A Song. He shaped nicely on reappearance over an inadequate trip of an extended 1m 5f in the Group 3 Ormonde Stakes at Chester, staying on and chasing home Japan. Although Trueshan needs the forecast rain, odds of 8/1 with Betfair will disappear if conditions turn in his favour.
Subjectivist from the Mark Johnston stable is the biggest danger to Stradivarius, according to the betting. I’m not sure. The renewal of the Dubai Gold Cup he won impressively was very weak. In handicapping terms, there’s a 7lb swing in weights with Princess Zoe from the Prix Royal-Oak that Subjectivist must defy to confirm the form.
Spanish Mission can’t be discounted on the pick of his form either. Wins in the Doncaster Cup and Yorkshire Cup give Andrew Balding’s runner claims. He does have a bit to find with Subjectivist on the Meydan form, though. Trueshan beat more useful horses at this venue that the Johnston runner did in the Middle East, and that swings it for me.
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Emperor Of The Sun overpriced from O’Brien contingent
Powerful owner-breeders Coolmore launch a four-pronged attack on the Ascot Gold Cup this year. I’ve been very disappointed with another long-term ante-post punt Santiago on his last three starts. Those connections supplemented Aidan O’Brien stable companion Serpentine at a cost of £30,000. The 2020 Epsom Derby winner hasn’t looked like repeating his all the way triumph since.
Amhran Na Bhfiann has never won on turf and first-time blinkers probably won’t change that. That leaves the Donnacha O’Brien trained Saval Beg Stakes scorer EMPEROR OF THE SUN looking overpriced on the pick of his form. Some of it looks quite smart, including when chasing home Princess Zoe at the Galway Festival and subsequent St Leger scorer Galileo Chrome in the Yeats Stakes at Navan.
Emperor Of The Sun also ran on well when beaten just over a length and third to Baron Samedi in the Group 3 Vintage Crop at the same venue. The winner has since made a successful transatlantic raid on the Belmont Gold Cup in New York. Victory over Search For A Song last time out gives Emperor Of The Sun claims of outrunning odds of 22/1 with William Hill, and he’s one to consider each-way.
Joseph O’Brien saddles the Melbourne Cup hero Twilight Payment but this isn’t a handicap. The eight-year-old has confounded me on more than one occasion in recent seasons. It’s a huge ask to beat Stradivarius and other younger horses off level weights or conceding it.
Princess Zoe no forlorn hope if it rains
And finally in our Ascot Gold Cup betting tips for this year, the aforementioned PRINCESS ZOE needs every drop of rain that could fall on the track. Her remarkable progress last year after being brought to Ireland from Germany by Tony Mullins was one of the stories of the Flat campaign. Starting off on a rating of 64, Princess Zoe improved no end with her racing.
She notched a five-timer last summer and autumn, going from handicap company including two wins the Galway Festival up to the highest level. Princess Zoe ploughed through the Longchamp mud when getting up in really gutsy fashion and landing the Group 1 Prix du Cadran over this trip on Arc Weekend. The question is whether or not she is a mudlark, or loves extreme tests of stamina.
It may be a little of both, but she certainly gets a stayers’ trip here. If conditions do deteriorate as forecast, then Princess Zoe look sure to come in for support. Yielding surfaces like those encountered at Cork and Gowran Park on her first two starts this season simply may not have been soft enough. She was never going the pace to challenge in either outing over inadequate distances.
Those spins should have brought Princess Zoe on for what has been a definite target for Mullins. Her hopes of Gold Cup glory may be in the lap of the weather gods. As with Trueshan, if there is a deluge at Ascot, then the 22/1 with BetVictor about Princess Zoe will ironically dry up. This is one feature race that horse racing fans can’t afford to miss!
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