The forecast for Ascot on Tuesday afternoon was possible thunderstorms – the sort of thing you can take shelter from and then carry on with enjoying the rest of the day.
Instead, we got several hours of fairly light but very steady rain which turned the ground from good to good-to-soft and finally to soft, but the good news is that there has been no significant rain at the course since yesterday evening and the going has consequently improved to be good-to-soft on the straight course and soft, good-to-soft in places on the round.
“The forecast is for possible further showers during the day,” Chris Stickels, the clerk of the course, said this morning, “but we’ve been fortunate and missed most of the heavy showers overnight.”
It had been three years since a race at Royal Ascot had been run on anything other than good-to-firm ground – last year’s meeting was at the start of the heatwave – and it was just a little deflating to start the week with a reminder of how susceptible this showpiece event can be to the weather.
But Ryan Moore and Danny Tudhope both rose to the occasion with doubles, and Moore’s ride on Circus Maximus was a perfect example of an outstanding jockey turning every little edge to his advantage to win to beat the market leaders on a 10-1 chance.
We await news this morning on whether Sea Of Class, one of the week’s biggest stars, will be allowed to take her chance in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes. She has not seen a racecourse since her fast-finishing second behind Enable in last year’s Arc after passing almost the entire field in the straight, and while it would be a blow to the meeting to lose her, a return to Paris in October is a number one priority. William Haggas will not want to risk leaving her season behind with a hard race on testing ground.
As yet, there are just a handful of non-runners on the card, the most notable being Good Vibes, one of the best of the British-trained runners, in the opening Queen Mary Stakes. She was scratched yesterday afternoon due to a bad scope, which leaves Saeed bin Suroor’s Final Song as the most opponent for Wesley Ward’s Kimari as the American attempts to win this race for the third time in five seasons.
Kimari’s challenge is backed up by her stable companion Anna’s Song, but soft ground is an unknown for both and one runner to catch the eye at a big price is Liberty Island, whose trainer, John Quinn, saddled the 25-1 winner Signora Cabello 12 months ago.
The Royal Hunt Cup is the big betting race of the day and the course specialist Raising Sand could yet start favourite to provide his rider Nicola Currie with only the second victory for a female rider at the Royal meeting and the first for 32 years. Jamie Osborne’s course specialist is at his very best with a little cut in the ground and is closing in on New Graduate at the head of the market at around 15-2 having been a 12-1 chance a couple of days ago.
Chris Cook’s tips for day two are here and all the news on market moves, non-runners and, from 2.30pm BST, the winners and losers will be here as the day unfolds.