Royal Ascot Betting Odds

Horse racing is one of the most popular spectator sports in the UK and a hugely popular sport to bet on. There are two types of racing in the UK – Flat and Jumps racing.

The pinnacle of the UK Flat racing season is in June when five days of Royal Ascot brings together the best equine talent from around the world for a true festival of racing, high fashion, and entertainment.

It is five days that also provides some of the best betting opportunities on the Flat. Here we look at the meeting in detail and think about several ways of finding value when having a bet there.

Royal Ascot Horse Race

Horse racing is known as the sport of kings and Royal Ascot is an event that lives up to its name. Traditionally the Queen attends all five days of the meeting, arriving by horse-drawn carriage down the centre of the racecourse.

But don’t let all the glitz and glamour distract you from the racing action, as these are five days jam-packed with brilliant races and racehorses. Here are some of the highlights of the week.

Current Top 5 Favourites To Win The 2022 Royal Ascot

There are no betting odds markets currently available for Royal Ascot 2022.

The meeting is heavily influenced by the early season Classics – 1000 Guineas, 2000 Guineas, Oaks, Derby – and other key races, so it is only after these that the markets really take shape.

The Royal Ascot Details

Tuesday Races

Royal Ascot’s opening day features three Group Ones, the Queen Anne Stakes, King’s Stand Stakes, and St James’s Palace Stakes.

The Queen Anne Stakes is the opening race of the Royal meeting and is run over one mile on Ascot’s straight track. With a value of over £300,000 is the richest race on an opening day.

There have been many brilliant winners of Queen Anne, including Goldikova, Solow, Canford Cliffs, and Frankel. This year’s race was won by the John & Thady Gosden-trained Palace Pier.

The King’s Stand offers a chance for the sprinters to strut their stuff over five furlongs of the straight track. In recent years several great sprinters have managed two wins in the race.

Equiano, hailing from Spain, surprisingly won in 2008 and 2010, before Sole Power displayed his devastating turn of foot when winning back-to-back renewals in 2013 and 2014.

In 2018 and 2019, Godolphin’s Blue Point twice denied the best five-furlong sprinter in the world, Battaash, to win. Battaash finally managed a well-deserved win in the race in 2020.

The St James’s Palace Stakes is a race for three-year-olds and often sees horses that ran in the 2000 Guineas renewing their rivalry. It is run over a mile of the round course at Ascot, meaning a low draw can be important in a big field.

This race has one of the most glittering roles of honour of any at Royal Ascot, with names such as Rock Of Gibraltar, Frankel, and Kingman having triumphed. This year the impressive Poetic Flare was a welcome and worthy addition to the list.

Wednesday Races

Day two features a host of Group Twos, but the big race of the day is the Group One Prince of Wales’s Stakes.

Run over one mile two furlongs of the Ascot round course, this is one of the best races in the world for horses aged four years or older. There have been many notable performances in recent years and one of the most memorable was when the Sir Michael Stoute-trained Crystal Ocean returned to the adulation of the Ascot crowd after winning a deserved first Group One in 2019.

Thursday Races

The famous Ascot Gold Cup headlines day three of the meeting with the best-staying horses around fighting it out in one of the longest races of the Flat season, over two miles and four furlongs.

The most successful horse in Ascot Gold Cup history is Aidan O’Brien’s Yeats, who won a remarkable four in a row between 2006 and 2009.

Brilliant stayer Stradivarius missed out on equalling that record this year but was exceptional when winning in the three previous renewals, including a 10-length demolition of his rivals in 2020.

Friday Races

Day four features two Group Ones, beginning with the Commonwealth Cup for three-year-olds, run over six furlongs. This is a relatively new addition to the meeting, with the first renewal run in 2015.

There was drama in this race in 2021, as Dragon Symbol crossed the line first, but was judged to have impeded close second, American challenger Campanelle, with that rival being handed the race following a stewards’ inquiry.

The Coronation Stakes is for three-year-old fillies and is held over a mile of the round course. Horses that competed in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket often lineup here and this year was a brilliant spectacle, with Alcohol Free triumphing for trainer Andrew Balding.

Saturday Races

The final day, and one final big Group One in the form of the Diamond Jubilee. This is the race for older sprinters and is run over six furlongs on the straight course.

Notable winners include sprinter Black Caviar, one of the greatest horses in the history of Australian racing, who came to Ascot in 2012 looking to preserve a 21-race unbeaten record.

A win was thought to be a formality and she was sent off at 1/6. However, in a race of high drama, things didn’t go exactly to plan as jockey Luke Nolen looked to mistake the winning post as she scraped home by a rapidly reducing head at the line.

Popular Horse Racing Bets

For any horse race, the type of bet you place is an important consideration.

This is because every race market is different, due to the number of horses running and the odds of those horses. Knowing the best bet to place in different circumstances can improve your chance of winning.

Here are a few common horse racing bets.

Straight Bets

A bet placed on one horse in a race. There are different types of straight bet: win, place, and each-way bets.

Forecast

There are two types of forecast: a straight forecast and a reverse forecast. With a straight forecast, you select two horses to finish first and second in a race.

They must finish in the correct order to win the bet. With a reverse forecast, the two horses can finish in any order.

Tricast

There are also straight and reverse tricasts. A straight tricast challenges you to predict the first three horses in a race in the correct order. A reverse tricast means your three selections can finish in any order.

Betting Strategy For Royal Ascot

There are 35 races across the five days of Royal Ascot meaning it is important to focus on particular races rather than trying to find a bet in all of them.

There is no one strategy for this because many of the races are run over varying distances and often on different courses.

However, below are some pointers that can be used when trying to find value in the market at Royal Ascot.

Follow Royal Ascot Specialist Trainers

Most of the big trainers target Royal Ascot, but there are some that have a phenomenal record when it comes to producing winners at the meeting.

Aidan O’Brien, John Gosden (now training in partnership with son Thady) and Sir Michael Stoute have collectively won 27 of the 77 Group One races on offer in the last ten years, 35 percent of the big races.

They all tend to specialise in training middle-distance horses and if you discount the three Group One sprints, then they have won a staggering 46 percent of Royal Ascot Group Ones in the last 10 years.

The importance of following the right trainers at Royal Ascot cannot be underestimated and in the big races, these are the trainers to look out for.

Follow The 1000 & 2000 Guineas Form At Royal Ascot

The form of the early season Classics can give good pointers to the chances of horses at Royal Ascot, particularly in the St James’s Palace Stakes (Day one) and the Coronation Stakes (Day four).

The St James’s Palace Stakes has been won by the 2000 Guineas winner four times in the past 10 years, with two horses that finished as runners-up at the Newmarket race also going on to win.

There is less of a correlation with the fillies, but the form of the 1000 Guineas does also transfer well to the Coronation Stakes, with two winners, as well as two who finished down the field in the Newmarket Classic going on to success in the last 10 years.

Where Is The Fastest Ground On The Straight Course

This is more of a technical consideration, but it can be a vital one when punting and looking for value in races on Ascot’s straight course.

Of the 35 races during the week, 18 are run on the straight course. Many of them are sprints and attract big fields of runners, of often 20 horses or more.

This means that the starting stalls can stretch across the entire width of the track, with horses drawn in high numbered stalls against the stands side rail and those in the low draw against the far rail.

There can be a track bias, with one part of the track having faster ground, and horses that race on that part of the track holds a significant advantage over others. Finding horses that are likely to race on the fastest part of the track is a good way of approaching races on the straight course.

The first day at Royal Ascot features two sprints – the King’s Stand and Coventry Stakes – and these can be used as a gauge as to where the fastest ground on the straight course maybe.

If, for example, the first three horses in the King’s Stand and the Coventry all came from stalls 15-20 then it is fairly safe to assume that the quickest ground is along the stands rail and high draws hold an advantage.

However, the tricky thing is that the ground being like this does not always remain the same, and after overnight rain the best place to race on could conceivably have switched to the far side rail.