The final day of Royal Ascot rolls around on Saturday and what a fantastic card we have in store. The Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (15:40) is the feature and there are three other Group races on a superb afternoon live on ITV. The King and Queen will be in attendance to watch.
Racing Post tipster Graeme Rodway is back with his best bets on the closing action at Royal Ascot and is all over one in the feature race at massive odds.
Saturday’s Royal Ascot Horse Racing Betting Tips
15:40 Royal Ascot - Almeraq @ 25/1
16:20 Royal Ascot - Saber Strike @ 2/1
17:00 Royal Ascot - Double Rush @ 5/1
15:40 Royal Ascot - Almeraq @ 25/1
The Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (15:40) is the big race of the day and I can’t understand why Almeraq is such a big price. He is trained by one of the best around in William Haggas and if he thinks that this son of Dark Angel is good enough to make the step up into Group 1 company, that’s a tip itself.
Almeraq is totally unexposed after only six starts and we simply don’t know how good he could be. He has been successful on three occasions, finished second another twice, and fell the other time that he didn’t win. On five of those six outings he went off favourite, so the market evidently thinks he’s good.
He comes into the race following a career-best effort at Salisbury last time, when he won by only a neck but did well to cut down the leaders in a race that definitely wasn’t run to suit a hold-up horse.
Further improvement will be needed, but there is definitely scope for Almeraq to take another big step forward and let’s not forget that his Salisbury run was his first this year. There is a good chance that he needed it and can find the extra 10lb that will be required to make the breakthrough at this level.
16:20 Royal Ascot - Saber Strike @ 2/1
Haggas had the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes in mind for Saber Strike until recently, but a late change of plan can pay off for the master trainer in the Jersey Stakes (16:20) over an extra furlong.
Saber Strike has run only twice and the fact that Haggas was considering a Group 1 at such an early stage of his career speaks volumes about the high regard in which the son of Night Of Thunder is held.
He improved his Racing Post Rating by more than 20lb when landing a Listed race at Newmarket last time and that is historically a strong race. The fourth has already franked the form by scoring since.
This might only be a Group 3, but it’s probably a bigger step up in class for Saber Strike than it looks on paper because this is stronger than a run-of-the-mill event for that grade.
Nevertheless, this three-year-old has loads more to offer and is the banker of the day. Hopefully it’ll be a Haggas double.
17:00 Royal Ascot - Double Rush @ 5/1
The Wokingham Stakes (17:00) is the big betting race of the day and I can’t get away from Double Rush, who has looked like a Group winner in waiting this season and can continue his huge amount of progress.
The Blue Point colt has been transformed by a change of stable this campaign and hasn’t stopped improving for Andrew Balding. He bolted up on his stable debut at Newmarket in April and justified odds-on favouritism at that course last month, scoring by a wide margin for the second time in a row.
The handicapper has been scrambling around trying to keep up with Double Rush’s rate of improvement and a 10lb rise for that latest Newmarket victory is evidently going to demand more. However, it’s hard to know just where his ceiling will be and a mark of 105 doesn’t look overly harsh given how easily he wins.
If he is the Group horse that I think he might be then he will soon be rated at least 5lb to 10lb higher than that and Double Rush is definitely capable of reaching that level judging by what we have seen from him this season.
He just needs to prove he can do it at this course as his poorest run came at Ascot last year.
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Tipster's Recent Winners
Graeme Rodway had a couple of big-priced placings in his last column with Maltese Cross (12/1) and Partisan Hero (11/1) making the frame at Epsom.
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