17:25 Royal Ascot: Punters to find an Excellent Guest at Ascot
Published:You’ve got to love a challenge and the Buckingham Palace Stakes certainly provides that in the finale on day four of Royal Ascot.
29 Royal Ascot runners will sprint for seven furlongs in the hope of landing the £31,155 pounds prize, and while it’s a tough race for punters to unravel, the benefits for the winning connections and punters are huge.
The Buckingham Palace Stakes was only established as a Royal Ascot race back in 2002 but no favourite is yet to justify their Royal Ascot odds and there are already a few trends that have become apparent.
Punters are looking for a runner that has previously won over seven furlongs, is carrying less than nine stone and has been drawn either very high, or very low.
On just two occasions has the winner started the race at single-figure odds and this is one race where, if you find the winner, you’re in for a big profit.
We’ve managed to narrow it down to four runners but based on the weight trends, we’re ruling out Kevin Ryan’s Our Jonathon (8/1F) leaving us with Smarty Socks (20/1), Free For All (12/1) and Excellent Guest (25/1).
Only one of the nine winners of this race had won it’s previous start before the Coronation Stakes which puts negatives against Smarty Socks and Free For All, but the two are very nice each-way prices and punters shouldn’t be put off backing them.
Excellent Guest has both the course and distance form to his name and while he may be the biggest price on our shortlist, he has a brilliant chance.
George Margarson’s four-year-old found the pace a bit to strong in his last start which was at Ascot last month, but Tom Queally takes the ride on Friday and his tactics will be spot on.
