Royal Ascot tips: Royal Hunt Cup trends – we help you find the winner of the Royal Hunt Cup live on ITV
We narrow down the field to help you pick the winner of the big handicap contest live on ITV this Wednesday at Royal Ascot
5.00 ROYAL ASCOT: The Royal Hunt Cup
The Royal Hunt Cup is a 30 runner handicap run over the straight mile.
TOP TRENDS:
Stick with distance winners
Four and five-year-olds do well
It’s hard to carry more than 9st 1lb
8/1 shortest winning price since 2009
High numbers best in draw
How to claim your FREE £10 bet
1
2 Bet £5 or more
3 Sun Bets will stick a £10 bet in your account
RED LION Get ready for Royal Ascot with this profile on Aussie sprinter Redkirk Warrior
VERDICT:
ESCOBAR is the one for the trends in this big field.
Weight plays a big part in this hottest of handicaps with none of the past 10 winners managing to lump more than 9st 5lb to victory.
So from the top we’ll cross out Zhui Feng, Mubtasim, Love Dreams, Circus Couture, Master Merion and Flaming Spear.
After that, it’s important to have won one of your past five race. So that is bad news for Tricorn, Gabrial, Tony Curtis and Firmament.
Burnt Sugar and Keyser Soze are overlooked because they haven’t won a race over a mile, which is another important stat.
We’ve still got 17 standing before we look at runners who were in the first four last time out. That means goodbye to Hors De Combat, Goring, Raising Sand and Bless Him.
Given the strong record of four-year-olds, we’ll concentrate on that age group and lose Arcanada, Repercussion and Mountain Rescue.
Only one recent winner was coming back from a long break so Mukakal is crossed out.
Looking at the final nine, we’ll stick with horses that have finished in the first three of a big-field contest.
So we’ll overlook Archetype, Cape Byron and Medahim. It’s also important to have won a Class 2 race before so Settle For Bay, What’s The Story and Kynren have to go.
So we have reduced the 30 runners to a more manageable four — Afaak, Saltonstall, Settle For Bay and Escobar.
They all fit the trends bill very nicely and with prices between 12-1 and 25-1 you could spread your stakes.
But looking for just one bet ESCOBAR won well at Haydock last week and looks capable of deying a penalty.
LATEST IN HORSE RACING
How can I watch the race?
The race will be shown live on ITV at 5.00pm this Wednesday.
The full Ascot card will also be broadcast on Racing UK.
Racing UK is on Sky channel 426, Virgin channel 536, and UPC in Ireland on channel 411.
You can also follow our live blog with all the action from Ascot.