November 14, 2024

Royal Ascot 2023 day two: Mostahdaf wins Prince of Wales’s Stakes, Jimi Hendrix takes Royal Hunt Cup and more – live

Jimi Hendrix #JimiHendrix

Good morning and welcome to Ascot racecourse, where day two of the 2023 royal meeting will get under way at 2.30pm with Frankie Dettori still looking for his first winner of the week and hoping that things don’t go from bad to worse.

Tuesday was set up to be Dettori’s day, with several fancied rides and an obvious opportunity to get the meeting off to a flyer. He ended up with three second-place finishes, a late non-runner and, most embarrassingly, a nine-day ban for causing significant interference on Saga – the King’s only runner on the day – which rules him out of the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown next month.

With the obvious exception of Saga, Dettori did not really do a great deal wrong on Tuesday, but his mounts were not quite good enough. When you are the most high-profile jockey of the last 30 years, however, and you announced back at Christmas that this season would be your last, a bad first day at the royal meeting can take on a life of its own.

Dettori has four rides on today’s card, three of which are likely to set off at single-figure odds. Tamarama is one of the favourites for the Kensington Palace Fillies’ Handicap at 3.05pm, Prosperous Voyage is around 11-4 for the Duke Of Cambridge Stakes and Gregory is a very warm order for the Queen’s Vase.

His other ride, meanwhile, is Reach For The Moon in the Royal Hunt Cup, another runner in the King’s colours and a bitter disappointment when odds-on for the Hampton Court Stakes here last year.

But he does not have a mount in the feature event, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, while Ryan Moore, who is one win behind him in the all-time list at the royal meeting after a treble on Tuesday, has a full book of seven rides, including Luxembourg, the favourite, in the big one.

The all-important ground, meanwhile, is currently riding good on the straight course and good, good-to-soft in place on the round. It was a dry night and the forecast is for a possible shower or two during the afternoon, but nothing to be too concerned about.

Some thoughts on the seven races on today’s card are here, and the action is under way at 2.30pm with the Queen Mary Stakes – unless you include the royal procession at 2pm, of course. The Duke of Wellington, no less, popped up in the first carriage yesterday. Is there still a Lord Nelson somewhere who can be tracked down for day two?

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