Royal Ascot tips: NAPs from the Racing Post

Racing Post tipsters Keith Melrose, Graeme Rodway and Robbie Wilders have provided their best bets for Royal Ascot.

Royal Ascot NAPs

Keith Melrose's Royal Ascot Best Bet

Kerdos
King Charles III Stakes - 14/1

Graeme Rodway's Royal Ascot Best Bet

Aerion Power
Royal Hunt Cup - 25/1

Robbie Wilders' Royal Ascot Best Bet

Middle Earth
Hardwicke Stakes - 5/1

Keith Melrose Royal Ascot NAP

You hear a lot of talk about the sprint division being open. While that is strictly true, it ignores that the five-furlong sprints are clearly more winnable than those over six. 

For this reason, I can understand putting Big Evs in as favourite for the King Charles III Stakes, which is the new name for the King's Stand. Few of his rivals have any claims on stardom. Even so, a couple represent much better value than his current odds, which make a few assumptions about his progress that I do not share.

It would not remotely surprise if Regional won. Before he won last year's Sprint Cup, I would have said he was more of a five-furlong type and he shaped that way again on his recent reappearance.

Yet at twice the odds, and with demonstrable course form, an each-way bet on Kerdos is a slightly more attractive proposition.

Kerdos burst onto the scene when finishing second in last year's Holyroodhouse over this course and distance. He was beaten a neck that day, three and a half lengths ahead of the rest, but he shaped best by a clear margin. He surrendered more than the neck he was beaten by hanging left across the track once he had burnt off all the horses in his group.

Kerdos kept improving after that. He won the Beverley Bullet a couple of months later and was last seen landing a Group 2 at Haydock in which he was the only runner who ever looked like overhauling Live In The Dream.

A good test at this trip is ideal and he can emulate his sire Profitable, who won this race as a four-year-old for Clive Cox.

Keith Melrose's Royal Ascot tip:

King Charles III Stakes
Kerdos @ 14/1 each-way
1pt each-way

Graeme Rodway Royal Ascot NAP

It’s been 24 years since Sir Michael Stoute landed the Royal Hunt Cup with Caribbean Monarch, but he can add another victory in the race this year with last season’s fourth, Aerion Power.

He might be a six-year-old, but he has run just 17 times and only six of those have come in the last two years, so he is relatively lightly raced and unexposed for a trainer who is famed for bringing his runners along slowly. Nobody is better with older horses than Stoute himself.

Aerion Power stayed on powerfully to be nearest at the finish when beaten only four-and-a-quarter lengths by Jimi Hendrix 12 months ago and ran another solid race when third over course and distance in September. He might have needed that run following a 79-day break.

He certainly needed his seasonal return at Newmarket this year when last of 17 in April, but looked like a different horse when coming from the rear to score at Nottingham this month. He did remarkably well to win after racing keenly off a slow pace on the outside of the field.

Aerion Power picks up a 5lb penalty for that success and will therefore need to improve to defy a mark that will be 5lb higher than when beaten in the race last season, but he is definitely capable of better when granted a stronger pace to go at and should get that here.

The return to a stiff track like Ascot will also be in his favour, as he has often looked like he is a good stayer at a mile, and everything is in place for Aerion Power to run another big race.

Graeme Rodway's Royal Ascot tip:

Royal Hunt Cup
Aerion Power @ 25/1 each-way
1pt each-way

Robbie Wilders Royal Ascot NAP

It’s always worth spying ante-post races, with a beatable favourite, that we know are going to cut up at Royal Ascot. With an average turnout of just 8.4 runners in the Hardwicke Stakes over the last decade and Continuous heading the betting, this is ripe for a wager on one of those further down the market.

Last year’s St Leger winner Continuous is scheduled to make his comeback in the Hardwicke with a view to building up towards an autumn campaign. There are always risks involved with backing an Aidan O’Brien-trained runner first time out and it is unlikely Continuous will be turning up near his peak.

However, Middle Earth will be and rates a confident alternative. Admittedly the Melbourne Cup is Middle Earth’s long-term aim, but he is an intended runner in the Hardwicke and looked better than ever on his return over 1m4f in a Group 3 at Newbury, coming from last to first in a contest that wasn’t run at a strong pace.

The runner-up, the race-fit King Of Conquest, was much better positioned given the way the race unfolded and franked the form by landing a Goodwood Listed prize in fine style on Sunday.

Middle Earth, who captured York’s Melrose Handicap at three before progressing further to win the Noel Murless at this track, clearly likes it here, as his sire Roaring Lion did, and has evidently gotten quicker as a four-year-old.

He is a stayer with a turn of foot and will be seen to even better effect in a truly run affair at 1m4f.

Robbie Wilders' Royal Ascot tip:

Hardwicke Stakes
Middle Earth @ 5/1
1pt win

This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.