Redvers Can Deliver At Ascot

Best bet at Ascot on Saturday is Redvers in the opening 7f handicap. The Ed Vaughan-trained gelding has been a serial eye-catcher this year, most notably in the Buckingham Palace Handicap over C&D at the Royal Meeting. Since then he's not had things drop right in the Bunbury Cup and back at Ascot when given far too much to do by Richard Hughes. He's now partnered by Richard Kingscote, and that rider's straightforward style will suit him, as will the prospect of a contested pace.

Redvers' credentials for a race of this nature aren't in doubt, as he showed when winning over C&D last summer in the Longines ladies' race, and he's shaped better than the bare result on all other starts at Ascot, shaping like just about the best horse at the weights despite finishing seventh in the Buckingham Palace, when racing on the "wrong" side and meeting trouble when full of running combined to derail his challenge. He's been dropped right out in 2 starts since, and the fact that those races have been dominated by those with early pace tells its own story. Horses like him (and main danger Pythagorean) will always be hostages to fortune in terms of tactics, but today's race has a pleasing shape to it, and Redvers certainly deserves to have the cards fall for him for a change.

The concluding race on the card is a big-field 5f handicap, and possibly not the race on which "Aussie Jim" McGrath wants to have has his final call, but if it all drops right, then it could be a dramatic and fitting epitaph to a once-revolutionary race-caller. The pattern of the race looks straightforward, with a lot of early speed among those drawn next to the stands rail, but the pacesetters, including Rylee Mooch, Stone of Folca and Lady Gibraltar, look vulnerable, and are likely to serve this up on a plate to the hold-up types in the field, of whom Dungannon and Diamond Charlie make most appeal.

Like the main selection, that pair caught the eye last time, Dungannon facing up well to a first-time visor only to meet traffic problems at Sandown last week, and Diamond Charlie getting the benefit of one of Mickael Barzalona's poorer tactical rides (and there are a lot to choose from) when fourth to a pair of reopposing rivals over C&D in July. Given an overconfident ride on that occasion, he failed to pick up immediately, but was running the leaders down close home, and will be better served by a faster pace here. With that pair occupying the highest stalls, and stacks of pace immediately to their right, it would be a surprise if one of them couldn't win, and it may well boil down to a battle of wits between Jimmy Quinn and Jimmy Fortune.

Recommendations:

All at Ascot

Back Redvers @ [11.0] in the 13:55 (NAP)

Back Dungannon & Diamond Charlie @ [5.0] & [15.0] in the 17:10