Sports

Royal Ascot: Gold Cup the feature on Ladies’ Day – live!


Chris Stickels’s first job this morning was to check the rain gauge at Ascot, and it showed that while some parts of the country got drenched overnight, Ascot remained – relatively – dry, with just 2.4mm of rain, which has left the going description for Ladies’ Day as good-to-firm.

That is below even the lower end of the very broad forecast on Wednesday evening, when it was suggested that anything from “5mm to 28mm” might arrive at the track.

It is also excellent news for Stradivarius in his attempt to win a fourth consecutive Gold Cup, but less positive for connections of Trueshan, the winner of the Long Distance Cup on Champions Day last year, who has a marked preference for cut in the ground. Hollie Doyle’s mount is steady in the market at around 9-2, however, while Stradivarius is hovering around the even-money mark with 6-5 the top price available at present.

Stickels, the clerk of the course, expects “an occasional shower this morning” and “a possible sharp shower this afternoon”, but most racegoers will be able to cope with that in order to enjoy what could be one of the most memorable afternoons at Royal Ascot for years. Stradivarius is not only attempting to equal Yeats’s record of four wins in the Gold Cup, but also looking to extend his winning streak at the Royal meeting to a fifth year (as he won the Queen’s Vase in 2017), which would make him even more of an Ascot legend.

Elsewhere on the card, the minimal rain overnight will also be a great relief to connections of Mohaafeth, the favourite for the Hampton Court Stakes, as it should guarantee there will be no repeat of the last-minute decision to scratch him from the Derby earlier this month.

The action is under way at the traditional time of 2.30pm BST, with 16 juveniles going to post for the Norfolk Stakes, and David Loughnane, who was looking for his first Royal winner at the start of the week, hoping to win consecutive races at the meeting with Go Bears Go, after his 1-2 with Lola Showgirl and Ffion in the last race on Wednesday.

Tips for all seven races on the Ladies’ Day card are here and you can follow all the action – and weather news – live here as it happens.



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