Fran Berry has four each-way fancies at big prices for the opening day of Royal Ascot 2020, including Space Traveller in the Queen Anne Stakes.
SPACE TRAVELLER looks a big price each-way at 25/1 in the Queen Anne Stakes in what looks a wide-open renewal.
Circus Maximus is the hot favourite here but he won last year’s St James’s Palace Stakes going around the bend and he might be vulnerable on the straight track.
That’s not the case with Space Traveller, as he won a red-hot Jersey Stakes at this meeting last year and that proven Ascot form could be a vital weapon against a posse of rivals that have yet to sample winning at this track.
Terebellum could be a danger, but she’s one of many that are dropping back from 10 furlongs and Space Traveller’s proven pace is another factor in his favour.
He’s only tried a mile twice, but showed he got the trip well when winning the Group Two Boomerang Stakes at Leopardstown last year while you can forgive any horse a reverse around Santa Anita.
At 25s he’s seriously underestimated for my money with four places widely available.
Earlier on the card I like the look of SHELIR in the Buckingham Palace Stakes at 40/1.
Sheikh Hamdan has a strong team here but in a 24-runner handicap we can roll the dice and Shelir ran an eye-catching race on his first start for David O’Meara at Newmarket last week.
He was a Group Three winner in Ireland for Dermot Weld and he’s fairly treated off 97 on that form, while he ran about a bit in the dip at Newmarket and wasn’t knocked about by David Nolan afterwards.
That should’ve put him straight for this and he looks to be drawn around the perceived pace, so there’s enough there for a small each-way bet. O’Meara won the last renewal of the Buckingham Palace in 2014, too.
Regular readers will know my love for Passion and she has a chance in the Ribblesdale, but I can’t bring myself to hit the button given her lacklustre reappearance at Navan.
I actually thought the bet against Frankly Darling was Passion’s stablemate ENNISTYMON at 10/1 each-way.
She’s got a very similar profile to the favourite and did very well to win at hot maiden at Leopardstown last week.
If she stays she’s got a huge chance and I reckon James Doyle has picked up a nice ride here.
Finally, it’s just on my mind that Battaash has had no prep run this year and that could make him vulnerable in the King’s Stand. If he’s too fresh he might not get home on a track where you need to see out every yard and at 8/11 he’s definitely worth taking on.
The one I like is EQUILATERAL, Battaash’s stablemate, at 14/1.
He broke the track record at Meydan in January with a fantastic performance and if you look back to last season he ran well in the King’s Stand after just being touched off by Mabs Cross in the Temple Stakes.
That shows a race of this nature is within his compass and if he relaxes for James Doyle in the first half of the race he could finish off the most strongly, especially if his stablemate has wasted vital energy in the preliminaries or the race itself.
Preview posted at 1655 BST on 15/06/2020
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