ROYAL ASCOT JUVENILES TO WATCH

lan Heitman looks at the two-year-olds who will be strutting their stuff from June 20-24

There haven’t been too many flat turf meetings run on quick ground so far in 2023, the Guineas meeting at Newmarket in early May was run on ground bordering on heavy for the 2,000 Guineas and soft for the 1,000 Guineas. With Royal Ascot just a few weeks away, hopefully there will be a period of dry weather to enable the ground to quicken up.

The five-day Royal meeting will see some of the world’s leading thoroughbreds race for record prize money with seven races on each day.

Six of the 35 races are for twoyear-olds with day two the only day to have two races for juveniles.

The opening day, with three Group 1 races, should be a fantastic day with the St James’s Palace Stakes for three-year-olds likely to see a rematch between the first three from the 2000 Guineas, Chaldean, Hi Dubai and Royal Scotsman.

Since 2010, 20 horses who ran in the first two-year-old race of the meeting, the Group Two Coventry Stakes over 6f, also ran in the following year’s 2000 Guineas with one completing the double, Dawn Approach in 2012/13.

Eleven of the 13 Coventry winners since 2010 made a winning debut with Nando Parrado, winner in 2020 and longest-priced winner in recent years, the first maiden to win the race since 1997.