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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Tony Paley and Greg Wood at Royal Ascot

Royal Ascot day one: Paddington flies to win St James’s Palace Stakes – as it happened

Ascot (Organization) Royal Ascot Frankie Dettori
Ryan Moore rides Paddington across the line, leaving Frankie Dettori and Chaldean in second.
Ryan Moore rides Paddington across the line, leaving Frankie Dettori and Chaldean in second. Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Reuters

Moore the merrier!

Well that’s the end of day one and it’s Ryan Moore 3 Frankie Dettori 0. The Italian will not be happy at all on what was scripted to be more Frankie fever on his farewell tour. Moore looks to have the top jockey for the week in the bag already on a day in which his St James’s Palace Stakes winner, Paddington, was the highlight of the day. A winner which ensured the softly-spoken Ballydoyle handler Aidan O’Brien became the most successful trainer of all time at the showpiece meeting. And guess what? O’Brien and Moore have the favourite, Luxembourg, in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes tomorrow. Dettori has a couple of strongly fancied runners too. See you then for round two!

Ryan Moore unsaddles Paddington after winning the St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Ryan Moore unsaddles Paddington after winning the St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot. Photograph: Ian Headington/racingfotos.com/Shutterstock

Copper Horse Stakes (6.10pm) result

1 Vauban Evens fav
2 Absurde 5/1
3 Cemhaan 66/1

Updated

Copper Horse Stakes (6.10pm)

Ands they’re off … Get Shirty, last year’s winner of this race, bounds into the lead … now Vauban goes to the front … Postileo is in second spot … Vauban kicks for home … and goes clear for an easy victory. The rest are nowhere.

Updated

Copper Horse Stakes (6.10pm) betting

  • Vauban 11/10

  • Ruling Dynasty 11/2

  • Absurde 7/1

  • Chillingham 10/1

  • Postileo 12/1

  • Point King 14/1

  • Sam Cooke 25/1

  • Berkshire Rocco 25/1

  • Gaassee 28/1

  • Raymond Tusk 33/1

  • Get Shirty 40/1

  • Aaddeey 40/1

  • Scriptwriter 50/1

  • Cemhaan 66/1

  • Alright Sunshine 66/1

  • Charging Thunder 80/1

  • Full betting via Oddschecker

“That Dettori’s ridden another shocker on Saga”
“That Dettori’s ridden another shocker on Saga” Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP

Updated

Copper Horse Stakes (6.10pm) preview

Another staying handicap rounds off the card, and there’s another short-priced favourite from the Willie Mullins stable in Vauban, who is back on the Flat for the first time since July 2021. In the meantime, he has racked up three Grade One wins over hurdles, including the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham in March 2022, while he was also fourth behind Constitution Hill in the Champion Hurdle three months ago. He finished the latest jumping season on a mark of 160 and so looks very fairly weighted off 101 here, but things are rarely that simple and the 14-furlong trip here gives rather less room for manoeuvre than the two-and-a-half mile Ascot Stakes earlier on the card. At the prices, I’d rather be with Charlie Appleby’s Ruling Dynasty, a lightly-raced and fast-improving four-year-old with several useful stayers in his pedigree and what could prove to be a very lenient opening mark of 97.

SELECTION: RULING DYNASTY

“So last year I finished second on this horse when I should have won!”
“So last year I finished second on this horse when I should have won!” Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Updated

Wolferton Stakes (5.35pm) result

1 Royal Champion 16-1
2 Bolshoi Ballet 7-1
3 Buckaroo 3-1 f

Updated

Wolferton Stakes (5.35pm)

And they’re off … Solid Stone and Raadobarg were out of the stalls quickly … Bolshoi Ballet comes through to take it up … Highland Avenue is in a good position behind the leaders … Royal Champion challenges … and kicks clear for a victory over Bolshoi Ballet.

Updated

Wolferton Stakes (5.35pm) betting

  • Buckaroo 7/2

  • Francesco Clemente 4/1

  • Bolshoi Ballet 6/1

  • Cadillac 10/1

  • Saga 10/1

  • King Of Conquest 10/1

  • Poker Face 11/1

  • Highland Avenue 16/1

  • Checkandchallenge 25/1

  • Solid Stone 28/1

  • Royal Champion 28/1

  • Raadobarg 50/1

  • Notre Belle Bete 50/1

  • Certain Lad 50/1

  • Foxes Tales 50/1

  • Savvy Victory 125/1

  • Full betting via Oddschecker

An outfit!
An outfit! Photograph: James Marsh/Shutterstock

Updated

Wolferton Stakes (5.35pm) preview

This is generally one of the best Listed events of the year, but the latest renewal looks unusually strong, with a mix of improvers, established Pattern-race performers and even a former Grade One winner in Bolshoi Ballet, who also started favourite for the 2021 Derby. There will be plenty of focus too on Saga, the mount of Frankie Dettori and the only runner on today’s card in the royal silks. Buckaroo, beaten less than a length in a blanket finish for the Group One Prix D’Ispahan at Longchamp last month, is another big fancy, along with the lightly-raced Francesco Clemente, who suffered his first defeat in four outings at Goodwood in May. Further down the list, though, it might be wise not to overlook Cadillac, who is on to his third stable in a year after finishing second in this race last year and took his form to a new level for George Boughey with a convincing handicap success off 105 in a strongly-run race at Epsom’s Derby Festival.

SELECTION: CADILLAC

Racegoers celebrate as they watch the St James's Palace Stakes.
Racegoers celebrate as they watch the St James's Palace Stakes. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

Updated

News alert! 1,000 Guineas winner Mawj will miss Friday’s Coronation Stakes following an unsatisfactory scope.

Ascot Stakes (5.00pm) result

1 Ahorsewithnoname 7-1
2 Calling The Wind 15-2
3 Tritonic 20/1
4 Law Of The Sea 8/1

Updated

Ascot Stakes (5.00pm)

And they’re off … Prince Imperial very slowly away … Law Of The Sea runs solo in the middle if the track … Bring On The Night is in midfield … Solent Gateway has the lead with a full circuit to go … Throne Hall takes closer order … Pleasant Man is prominent … Tritonic has made good ground … Irish Lullaby is there … Law Of The Sea goes for home … Ahorsewithnoname comes into it and kicks clear on the inside rail.

Updated

Ascot Stakes (5.00pm) betting

  • Bring On The Night 7/4

  • Novel Legend 7/1

  • Calling The Wind 17/2

  • Ahorsewithnoname 9/1

  • Law Of The Sea 9/1

  • Zinc White 14/1

  • Zoffee 16/1

  • Tritonic 22/1

  • Irish Lullaby 25/1

  • Fleurman 25/1

  • Weston 28/1

  • The Grand Visir 35/1

  • Solent Gateway 40/1

  • Pleasant Man 40/1

  • Themaxwecan 40/1

  • Urban Artist 50/1

  • Achnamara 50/1

  • Throne Hall 66/1

  • Prince Imperial 125/1

  • Full betting at Oddschecker

They backed a winer at least.
They backed a winer at least. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Ascot Stakes (5.00pm) preview

The last five winners of this extreme test for staying handicappers have gone off at double-figure odds, and while the case for Willie Mullins’s Bring On The Night, who is certain to set off as favourite, is quite strong, for me at least it is not sufficiently watertight to make him a genuine 2-1 shot. He came up short off a 4lb lower mark last year – though admittedly behind Coltrane, who is among the big fancies for Thursday’s Group One Gold Cup – and there are all manner of decent possibilities to put up against him, including another runner from a big jumping yard, Nicky Henderson’s Ahorsewithnoname.

William Buick’s mount is similarly unexposed on the Flat and his recent form over the sticks is a little stronger too. A better bet, though, could be to side with Billy Loughnane, the excellent 3lb claimer, on Calling The Wind, sixth home in the Chester Cup last month. He was finished to good effect when running into traffic problems on the final run to the line and has actually been dropped 1lb in the ratings since.

SELECTION: CALLING THE WIND

Trying to find the winner.
Trying to find the winner. Photograph: Alex Pantling/Getty Images

Updated

St James's Palace Stakes (4.20pm) result

1 Paddington 11-5
2 Chaldean 13-8f
3 Charyn 33-1

Updated

St James's Palace Stakes (4.20pm)

And they’re off … Paddington away well and Chaldean prominent … Chaldean leads from Indestructible … Galleron up there too … Paddington makes a move … grabs the lead and kicks clear. Chaldean second.

Updated

St James’s Palace Stakes (4.20pm) market movers

St James's Palace Stakes (4.20pm) betting

  • Chaldean 13/8

  • Paddington 5/2

  • Isaac Shelby 8/1

  • Ciceros Gift 11/1

  • Royal Scotsman 12/1

  • Mostabshir 14/1

  • Indestructible 33/1

  • Galeron 33/1

  • Charyn 66/1

  • Full betting via Oddschecker

“The placings remain unaltered” Hollie Doyle and Bradsell keep the race … the King’s Stand Stakes is theirs.

Hollie Doyle celebrates after winning the King's Stand Stakes on Bradsell.
Hollie Doyle celebrates after winning the King's Stand Stakes on Bradsell. Photograph: James Marsh/Shutterstock

St James's Palace Stakes (4.20pm) preview

The feature race on day one and a gamble gathering pace on Frankie Dettori’s mount, Chaldean, who landed the 2,000 Guineas on very soft ground at Newmarket last month and was a 2-1 chance overnight. He is now no bigger than 13-8 with the major firms and Paddington, the Irish 2,000 Guineas winner, is out to 5-2, while the unbeaten Cicero’s Gift, who was no bigger than 5-1 on Monday, is right out to 11-1.

Isaac Shelby, who won the Greenham Stakes in a strong time after Chaldean unseated Dettori shortly after the start, is a solid 8-1 shot and that, for what it’s worth, is where my money is going. He followed up his Greenham success by going close in the French 2,000 Guineas, and the winner of that Classic went on to reach the frame in the French Derby next time out.

SELECTION: ISAAC SHELBY

“Oh I say!”
“Oh I say!” Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

Richard’s right …

Stewards’ inquiry! The stewards will take a look at the finish to the King’s Stand after Bradsell moved across into the path of Highfield Princess in the closing stages. The winner will be heavy odds-on to keep that race … in fact the victor is 1-10 on the exchanges to stay in first position after the inquiry. You can watch the head-on of the closing stages here.

Updated

King’s Stand Stakes (3.40pm) result

1 Bradsell (Hollie Doyle) 14-1
2 Highfield Princess (Jason Hart) 7-4 Fav
3 Annaf (Rossa Ryan) 50-1
17 ran
Also: 20-1 Twilight Calls 4th
Non Runners: 3,6

“One’s backed the second!”
“One’s backed the second!” Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Updated

King’s Stand Stakes (3.40pm)

And they’re off … Twilight Gleaming and Coolanagatta make a flying start … Highfield Princess and Bradsell make a move … Bradsell and Highfield Princess fight it out but Bradsell leads at the line under Hollie Doyle!

Updated

King’s Stand Stakes (3.40pm) market movers

  • Dramatised 6/1 into 4/1

  • Twilight Gleaming 20/1 into 14/1

  • Full details at Oddspedia

Updated

King's Stand Stakes (3.40pm) betting

  • Highfield Princess 2/1

  • Dramatised 4/1

  • Coolangatta 5/1

  • Twilight Gleaming 16/1

  • Bradsell 16/1

  • Mitbaahy 18/1

  • Marshman 18/1

  • Twilight Calls 22/1

  • Cannonball 22/1

  • Vadream 33/1

  • Equilateral 40/1

  • Mooneista 50/1

  • Happy Romance 50/1

  • Desert Cop 80/1

  • Raasel 100/1

  • Existent 125/1

  • Annaf 125/1

  • Full betting at Oddschecker

“Have you seen a horse yet?”
“Have you seen a horse yet?” Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Reuters

Updated

King's Stand Stakes (3.40pm) preview

The first race of the week with an Australian twang, as both Coolangatta, the 9-2 second favourite, and Cannonball, a 20-1 outsider, hail from Down Under and will be aiming to back up Nature Strip’s success in this race 12 months ago. Neither has quite as obvious a chance as Chris Waller’s gelding did last year, though Coolangatta is second-top on Timeform ratings – behind the favourite, Highfield Princess – and was strong at the finish when successful in the Group One Lightning Stakes at Flemington in February.

Dramatised, successful over course and distance in the Queen Mary Stakes for two-year-olds at last year’s meeting, is also in the reckoning, and arrives with a little more scope for progress than her older opponents, but they all have something to find with Highfield Princess if John Quinn’s admirable mare is close to her best form. She was giving weight to the winner when going down to a narrow defeat on her return to action at York last month and a remarkable performer who started out in handicap company could well be about to get another Group One on the board.

SELECTION: HIGHFIELD PRINCESS

“I knew I should have backed Ryan Moore!”
“I knew I should have backed Ryan Moore!” Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Coventry Stakes (3.05pm) result

1 River Tiber 11-8 f
2 Army Ethos 20-1
3 Bucanero Fuerte 16-1

Updated

Coventry Stakes (3.05pm)

Delay to the start … Buyin Buyin taken out of the stalls … Chief Mankato also out and won’t run … River Tiber and Politico go well … Asadna about sixth … River Tiber is closing on the far side and just holds Army Ethos in a driving finish.

Updated

Coventry Stakes (3.05pm) market movers

Princess Beatrice, centre, must have a day off.
Princess Beatrice, centre, must have a day off. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP

Frankie Dettori will not be happy. ITV Racing pundit Kevin Blake was adamant that Dettori’s mount, Inspiral, was the best horse in the first race and that “nine times out of ten” she would have won instead of coming second. The slow start and the modest pace would not have helped but the feeling is that perhaps Dettori should have made ground sooner and was not in the best of positions when making his move. The bookies will be pleased but the Italian won’t and last year’s debacle of a meeting will be in the back of his mind.

Frankie Dettori on Inspiral after placing second in the Queen Anne Stakes.
Frankie Dettori on Inspiral after placing second in the Queen Anne Stakes. Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Reuters

Coventry Stakes (3.05pm) betting

  • River Tiber 6/4

  • Asadna 7/2

  • Givemethebeatboys 8/1

  • Bucanero Fuerte 12/1

  • Bobsleigh 14/1

  • Emperors Son 20/1

  • Fandom 20/1

  • Haatem 25/1

  • Chief Mankato 25/1

  • Army Ethos 25/1

  • Spanish Phoenix 66/1

  • Cuban Thunder 66/1

  • Watch My Tracer 80/1

  • Zoulu Chief 100/1

  • The Camden Colt 100/1

  • Flag Of St George 100/1

  • Buyin Buyin 100/1

  • Politico 150/1

  • Packard 150/1

  • Prince X J 200/1

  • Ticktyboo 250/1

  • Alfa Whiteburd 300/1

  • Full betting at Oddschecker

Racegoers during day one of Royal Ascot.
Racegoers during day one of Royal Ascot. Photograph: David Davies/PA

Coventry Stakes (3.05pm) preview

Eighteen of the 22 runners in this Group Two for juveniles have had no more than two starts so far, so there is clear potential for many to improve significantly on their form to date and a complete “boil over”, along the lines of Nando Parrado’s 150-1 shocker three years ago, is always a possibility. That said, fancied horses have a pretty decent record in this contest overall, with four winning favourites in the last nine years, and this year’s race has two colts – River Tiber and Asadna – a fair way clear at the top of the betting.

The market suggests that it is around an 8-15 chance that one or other will win, and punters who place their faith in time analysis in particular have been counting down the days to this race ever since Asadna posted one of the fastest debut times by a two-year-old for many a year at Ripon last month. The only horse from that race to run subsequently was the runner-up and he did little to frank the form - while River Tiber has also won in a decent time on both of his starts to date – but Asadna is clearly a potent talent and if he can improve only a little for his first experience of racing he is likely to take all the beating.

SELECTION: ASADNA

Royal Ascot racegoer.
Royal Ascot racegoer. Photograph: Ian Headington/racingfotos.com/Shutterstock

Queen Anne Stakes (2.30pm) result

1 Triple Time 33-1
2 Inspiral 11-4
3 Light Infantry 14-1

Updated

Queen Anne Stakes (2.30pm)

And they’re off … Inspiral is the slowest out again … Light Infantry leads … and Triple Time is far too keen … Berkshire Shadow is close to the leaders as is Modern Games … Triple Time is in the lead but here comes Inspiral … and Triple Time wins and denies Frankie Dettori a winner in the first race!

“Should that rascal be in the Royal Enclosure?”
“Should that rascal be in the Royal Enclosure?” Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP

Updated

Queen Anne Stakes (2.30pm) betting

  • Modern Games 9/4

  • Inspiral 3/1

  • Native Trail 7/1

  • Chindit 9/1

  • Mutasaabeq 11/1

  • Light Infantry 18/1

  • Berkshire Shadow 20/1

  • Cash 20/1

  • Triple Time 33/1

  • Lusail 33/1

  • Angel Bleu 50/1

  • Pogo 100/1

  • Full betting via Oddschecker

“Is it Saturday yet?”
“Is it Saturday yet?” Photograph: John Walton/PA

Frankie gets a big cheer and a now familiar greeting …

Queen's Hat Stakes (2pm)

1 Cream/White 3-1.

First winner of the week.
First winner of the week. Photograph: John Walton/PA

The favourite has come in!

Updated

Before King Charles turns up in a couple of minutes in the royal procession, his former butler Grant Harrold has told Boylesports he’s only going to be there “out of duty.”

“The King will go this year because it’s a thing that royals go to Ascot and it is a royal event. But I can make a bet that you won’t see the King running out of the box with excitement over the possibility of winning a race. He rides and he’s got a love for the animals as well, but the racing part was much his mother’s passion. I’m not saying he doesn’t have a flutter, but it’s not something you would go to.

“However, his wife, the new Queen, loves horse racing. In fact, we often see her at Cheltenham. Anne has always been a lover along with her daughter Zara. I think the new Queen will be the one maybe stepping forward in that role and presenting the prizes. I think the King will present the prize, but who knows? Maybe the new Queen will be given that honour as she is more of a lover of racing.

“We see him at it, so it’s not as if he doesn’t go to them. I think it’s more something that he’ll probably go because it’s his duty to go, it’s something it’s expected the royal family to do. I think it’s fair to say that it was very much his mother’s sport.”

Aidan O’Brien (second left) and his entourage walking the track.
Aidan O’Brien (second left) and his entourage walking the track. Photograph: Dave Shopland/Shutterstock

Updated

Another non-runner in the King’s Stand Stakes this afternoon …

Queen Anne Stakes (2.30pm) preview

The debate over Ascot’s insistence on running three Group Ones on day one in front of the second-smallest crowd of the week is apparently closed from the track’s point of view, so a race that could be a very worthy highlight in front of a packed house of 70,000 on Friday or Saturday will be seen instead by roughly half that number as Modern Games, Inspiral and Native Trail, who have won eight Group One or Grade One races between them already, duke it out down the straight mile. Modern Games, who took the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury last time, a race that is also run on a straight track, has edged in front of Inspiral in the betting this morning, with the pair currently trading at 9-4 and 5-2 respectively, but the memory of Inspiral’s devastating success on the round course here in last season’s Coronation Stakes, which was also her first race of the season, remains strong and she is possibly the one to be on.

Don’t rule out Native Mission, though, as last year’s Irish 2,000 Guineas winner should definitely come on significantly for his seasonal debut behind Mutasaabeq, who is also in today’s field, while lightly-raced Cash is another to bear in mind for each-way purposes. He has just one win to his name but was just a short-head behind Westover, the subsequent Irish Derby winner, in last year’s Sandown Classic Trial.

SELECTION: INSPIRAL

Frankie Dettori arrives for his final week riding at Royal Ascot.
Frankie Dettori arrives for his final week riding at Royal Ascot. Photograph: David Hartley/Shutterstock

Updated

Don’t put East Asia (5pm) on your betting slips. He has an abscess and won’t be turning up.

Una Healy of the Saturdays is at Ascot and that’s a nice tribute to Frankie Dettori right there …

Updated

Chris Stickels also told us that the far side (ie those nearest the rail and so those drawn in the low-numbered stalls) on the straight course is the quickest ground. Marginally anyway.

Updated

Some important jockey news … and the Puerto Rican jockey Irad Ortiz has clearly eaten something that has disagreed with him.

Updated

Nice touch from Frankie Dettori on Twitter where he’s just posted this … film of his first ever winner at Royal Ascot (Markofdistiniction way back in 1990)

The going change is here, it’s now official and it’s not insignificant (certainly so on the round course where the going is now on the soft side).

Frankie Dettori will be the name on everyone’s lips this week given it’s his final Royal Ascot but he’s had a setback already with the news that one of his best-backed mounts, Manaccan, will not be lining up in the King’s Stand Stakes at 3.40pm today.

Royal Procession (2pm)

1st Carriage
The King
The Queen
The Duke of Wellington
The Duchess of Wellington

2nd Carriage
The Princess Royal
Mrs. Simon Elliot
Sir Ben Elliot
Lady Elliot

3rd Carriage
The Duke of Gloucester
The Duchess of Gloucester
The Lord Bamford
The Lady Bamford

4th Carriage
Mr. Willie Mullins
Mrs. Willie Mullins
Mr. Ralph Beckett
Mrs. Ralph Beckett

Full race schedule for Tuesday

  • Queen Anne Stakes - 2:30pm
    (Guardian tip: Inspiral)

  • Coventry Stakes - 3:05pm
    (Guardian tip: Asadana)

  • King’s Stand Stakes - 3:40pm
    (Guardian tip: Highfield Princess)

  • St James’s Palace Stakes - 4:20pm
    (Guardian tip: Isaac Shelby – nb)

  • Ascot Stakes - 5pm
    (Guardian: Calling The Wind- nap)

  • Wolferton Stakes - 5:35pm
    (Guardian tip: Cadillac)

  • Copper Horse Stakes - 6:10pm
    (Guardian tip: Ruling Dynasty)

A racegoer is pictured ahead of the start of Royal Ascot.
A racegoer is pictured ahead of the start of Royal Ascot. Photograph: John Sibley/Reuters

Updated

If you want a betting tip today it’s to have a good look at the Tote odds at the meeting. Royal Ascot became the first British meeting to be part of the World Pool initiative back in 2019. The World Pool is a collaboration between several countries around the globe which allows punters to bet into the same pool as those from eight countries on specific racedays , including every day of the royal meeting.

The World Pool generates greater liquidity while also being able to go against fellow bettors from across the globe. This means that punters can place larger, more significant bets without having an impact on a horse’s price. For example, if you’d placed a £1 bet on each winner across 2022’s 17 World Pool days in Britain and Ireland, you’d have a 16% higher return compared to the usual, standard SP.

Punters can do so via the Tote website and mobile app, bookmakers that offer Tote betting and on the racecourses themselves.

Michael Fitzsimons, Executive Director, Wagering Products, at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, told me: “World Pool was born at Royal Ascot four years ago and it’s been hugely satisfying to see how much progress we’ve made. In 2019, there were a total of 30 World Pool races and we’re going to be closing in on 200 races in 2023. The value on offer for racing fans globally is truly exceptional.”

A racegoer placing a bet on the Tote which was first founded by the government in 1928.
A racegoer placing a bet on the Tote which was first founded by the government in 1928. Photograph: Felix Man/Getty Images

It’s almost that time again ... the announcement of who will be in the royal procession down the track at about 2pm. We can expect the details of who will be in the procession at around midday.

This, of course, is also the time when I traditionally mention the Serpentine gallery exhibition by artist Mark Wallinger I saw back in 1994 when one of his installations, called ‘Royal Ascot’, consisted of a series of video monitors on top of wheeled flight cases, each isolating the royal carriage’s leisurely progress down the track on the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (respectively, as it was then) of the meeting with the added TV commentary.

The British Council described the work thus: “Simultaneous footage exposes precise choreography: the Queen’s frozen smile and rigid curls, the tilt of her head, her gloved wave, the Duke of Edinburgh raising his top hat, the national anthem striking up. Appropriately for an event whose media coverage focuses on the parade of hats and dresses rather than the sport, here we have a close-up on clothes, on the Queen’s dolly mixture of pinks, tangerines, limes; the difference from day to day is barely discernible, just as the four BBC commentaries merge in a confused blather.”

As the critic Martin Herbert observed: “What Wallinger’s synchronised footage reveals is the rigidity of the class system in tangible form: the event is surreally identical every day.”

The point Wallinger was making is that the overall difference from day to day was barely discernible but what will be different this week is that King Charles III will be in the first carriage and that he will reportedly be there every day (something he won’t enjoy as he regularly used to scuttle off after the Tuesday).

A member of the Ascot staff cleans a flower pot outside the Royal Enclosure.
A member of the Ascot staff cleans a flower pot outside the Royal Enclosure. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

Queen's Hat Stakes (2pm) betting

  • 3/1 Cream/White

  • 4/1 Blue/Navy

  • 5/1 Pink/Peach

  • 6/1 Yellow

  • 8/1 Purple

  • 8/1 Red

  • 10/1 Green

  • 10/1 Orange

  • Boylesports betting

Milliner Carôllèe Emery checks out the opposition.
Milliner Carôllèe Emery checks out the opposition. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

Queen's Hat Stakes (2pm) preview

Our regular reader knows that we always start with the traditional opening betting heat of the day, the Queen’s Hat Stakes. The late Queen Elizabeth was a regular presence at the track during her long reign until failing health prevented her attending. Odds on the colour of her titfer were regularly offered by bookmakers and with reportedly the new King and Queen set to attend every day then the tradition is back.

A spokesperson for BestofBets.com tells me: “Earlier this week, BoyleSports confirmed that they are in fact continuing this long-standing tradition with the torch being passed to Queen Camilla with odds on what colour she wears on all five days.”

I also got a form preview as I was told: “Bookies have agreed that Queen Camilla’s likely to go for a more muted approach with cream/white shades being the current favourite.”

Betting on the colour of the Queen’s hat back in 2017.
Betting on the colour of the Queen’s hat back in 2017. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

Updated

Chris Stickels has been on Sky Sports Racing just now and told reporter Zoe Bird: “I can see a slight ease in the description but I don’t think it will be drastic.” With that he was off to walk around the track …

“Where did you get that hat … where did you get that hat?”
“Where did you get that hat … where did you get that hat?” Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Good morning and welcome to the royal meeting day one. Ascot, unlike Cheltenham, pushed their royal meeting into the weekend with its first Royal Ascot Saturday in 2002 and that was an immediate success. But five days of high-class racing make this a marathon (a Queen Alexandra Stakes if you like) not a sprint (a King’s Stand) and it’s key to pace yourself.

The first thing we need to know is what effect the 10mm of rain overnight and this morning has had on the ground. But we won’t know the details of the going until near to midday apparently which is, er, frustrating.

“We anticipate an ease in the going but it is too early to say what it will be before the rain we’ve had has properly soaked in,” reported clerk of the course Chris Stickels.

“We had 10mm, or just under, and most of that came in the heavy shower this morning, which came just after we originally walked the track. We’ll let that rain settle in and the ground will be reassessed by midday at the latest.”

We’ll get you the details as soon as we get them.

It’s a damp start to Royal Ascot.
It’s a damp start to Royal Ascot. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Updated

Welcome to our Royal Ascot coverage

Good morning and welcome to Ascot racecourse, where the weather forecast is a little iffy and the track has already soaked up around 10mm of rain since midnight, but around 40,000 racegoers in their finest gladrags are due to arrive imminently for day one of Royal Ascot 2023.

The track’s official weather and going webpage will be generating plenty of traffic this morning, while Chris Stickels, the clerk of the course, has recently issued an update on the ground via Twitter.

“The going will be reassessed at midday after 10mm of rain has just fallen,” Stickels said. “The current going description is good-to-firm in the straight and good, good-to-firm in places on the round course, but this will be updated once that rain has soaked through and we’ve have a chance to reassess the track.”

Despite the softening conditions underfoot, the first-day racegoers could be said to be smart in more ways than one.

This is the only day of the five-day meeting which stages three Group One events – the Queen Anne Stakes, the King’s Stand Stakes and the St James’s Palace Stakes – and yet, year after year, it is fourth out of five in terms of attendance. Only tomorrow’s card – which features the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, often the highest-quality race of the entire meeting – pulls in fewer racegoers.

Baaeed and Coroebus were both odds-on for the Queen Anne and St James’s Palace respectively 12 months ago, but the shortest-priced favourite on the first day this year is Vauban, in the Copper Horse Handicap at the end of the card, at around 13-8.

On the Flat, it does not get much better than this.

One rider, inevitably, will be the centre of attention as the meeting gets underway. Frankie Dettori is Mr Ascot, and a double on Inspiral and Chaldean would get his final royal meeting off to an explosive start. His first-day book of rides, in fact, may well turn out to be the best of his week, and now also includes a £1.1m juvenile after vGivemethebeatboys, a big fancy for the Coventry Stakes, was knocked down for a seven-figure sum at the Goffs London Sale on Monday evening.

Bookies will be braced for a Frankie charge on the first afternoon, although Ryan Moore, who is just four winners behind Dettori in third place on the all-time list at the meeting, is a very warm favourite to end the week as the top jockey. William Buick, champion on the Flat for the first time last year, is also very much in the conversation, as is Oisin Murphy, whose suspension in 2022 meant that he did not get a chance to defend the title that he won for the first time in 2021.

Picks for the first seven races at this year’s royal meeting are here, and you can, as ever, follow all the news, views, gambles and results here on the blog, all the way until the Copper Horse Stakes at what is now the meeting’s traditional last-race time of 6.10pm.

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