The Early Favourites for Royal Ascot

By- Nanci SEO

Now we're into 2022, the anticipation for a new racing season is hotting up even more.

By the time the world focuses its gaze on Ascot in mid-June, records will have been broken, and new winners will have been celebrated in the other meetings such as the Grand National. However, there's nothing quite like the Royal Ascot meeting and the historic Ascot Gold Cup race, which has been running since 1807. The race is the first leg of the triple crown of thoroughbred racing in the UK, making it one of the most important on the racing calendar.

The meeting is held at the course, which is just 28 miles west of London and only a few miles from the residence of the British Royal Family, Windsor Castle. It's also been an event that the monarchy of Britain has often visited and had a personal interest in. Not only has the Queen of England long been a visitor to the racing at Ascot but she's also had the honour of having a winner of her own at the meeting as noted by Town & Country. Will there be another Royal victory this year? Let's look at some of the favourites for the headline race, the Gold Cup.

Trueshan

The six-year-old gelding's pedigree means he's a real threat to all his other riders at Ascot this year. Trueshan has previous experience of winning the course; he won in 2020 at the British Champions Long Distance Cup, with his jockey Hollie Doyle commenting, 'he went through the ground like a tractor, he loved it.' Going into 2021, he was much fancied after looking strong in the lead up to the meeting but was pulled when his trainer Alan King deemed the ground to be too firm. He had a successful season, winning the Goodwood Cup and the Prix Du Cadran in France in October. So he's in fine fettle going into 2022, does that mean it's finally his year to taste Gold Cup success?

Stradivarius

The Irish thoroughbred has become a name synonymous with Royal Ascot over the past few years with a record that's the envy of many a trainer, and this year, the target is to equal a record set by one of the greats of racing. Ridden by Frankie Dettori, Stradivarius has won three of the last four Gold Cups and is already second favourite in the Coral Gold Cup markets for a fourth. Four wins at the Gold Cup is a feat that has only been achieved once before by Yeats, a fellow Irish thoroughbred. Although last year wasn't to end with the record-equalling run he was aiming for; he's keen to be back this year as his owner, Bjorn Nielsen, says he can't wait: "He's as enthusiastic as ever, which is quite amazing."

Subjectivist

Last year's winner of the Ascot Gold Cup is again in the frame for a win; last year, with veteran jockey Joe Fanning in charge, Subjectivist ran the perfect race, by first maintaining pace with the leading pack going into the final corner before striding majestically to a win, leaving the likes of Stradivarius in his wake, and adding to his win in the Dubai Gold Cup earlier in the year. Fanning wasn't surprised by the success as the four-year-old got on with the job at hand. "I just find he's a horse you don't complicate things with; if there's something in front, let him go," he said.