Royal Ascot
Top trainers to follow at Royal Ascot
Royal Ascot, perhaps the most eagerly anticipated race meeting in the British Flat racing calendar, brings together the very best racehorses, usually from the most successful trainers, to compete against one another under the most talented jockeys.
Betting advice given to new and inexperienced punters is often ‘go for the best trainers and jockeys and you won’t go far wrong’. Who, then, are the best trainers at Royal Ascot?
Aidan O’Brien
Hailing from Ballydoyle in Ireland, Aidan O’Brien is a formidable force whenever he brings horses over to the UK to race, but is particularly so at Royal Ascot, at which he has trained a sizable 81 winners in his career so far.
Last year alone, O’Brien trained five of the fixture’s winners and, on average, sends six winners to Royal Ascot each year. In 2016, he was responsible for an incredible nine victorious horses, the majority of which were ridden by Ryan Moore.
With 51 entries this year, each and every horse running for O’Brien must be taken seriously, especially if teamed up with Moore. The O’Brien and Moore combination have won 32 races in Ireland and Britain this year alone, with more to be expected at Ascot.
O’Brien’s most fancied Royal Ascot contenders are currently Paddington (2/1), a hat-trick winner already this season, culminating in a win in the Irish 2,000 Guineas, who is due to run in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes, and Luxembourg, who is set to debut at Ascot in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes, having lately won the Group 1 Gold Cup at the Curragh.
The latter is the 2/1 favourite for his contest as the market stands, with the former being joint favourite with the English 2,000 Guineas winner, Andrew Balding’s Chaldean.
Aidan O’Brien’s Royal Ascot string looks as strong as ever, and he can likely be expected to produce his usual outstanding results at the Royal meeting.
Sir Michael Stoute
The only trainer currently standing in the way of Aidan O’Brien’s total domination of Royal Ascot is Sir Michael Stoute, who sits one ahead of O’Brien in the total number of Royal Ascot winners. With 82 victories to his name at the meeting, anything sent to the Royal meeting by Sir Michael must be treated with the utmost seriousness and respect.
Sir Michael, a recent inductee to the Hall of Fame at the National Horseracing Museum and top trainer at Royal Ascot six times over, has been training winners at the meeting since 1977.
Though without a victor at the meeting last year, he recorded one winner in 2021 and two in 2019, most notably with Crystal Ocean in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes.
With seven entries this year, 2022 Brigadier Gerard winner Bay Bridge being thought of as the best of them in the top portion of the market for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at 3/1, Sir Michael has every chance of adding another winner to his astronomical Royal Ascot tally.
While other Prince of Wales’s Stakes hopeful Desert Crown looks unlikely to go to Royal Ascot due to a set-back, Sir Michael’s stable is in as good form as ever ahead of his favourite meeting.
John & Thady Gosden
As a sole trainer, John Gosden had had over 40 winners at Royal Ascot before taking out a joint license with his son, Thady. As a pair, the Gosdens were successful in one race at the meeting last year; Inspiral in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes under Frankie Dettori. This was an altogether disappointing result for the Gosdens, who were predicted to have had at least one other winner in the shape of Stradivarius, who was inched out of the Gold Cup that year by the Aidan O’Brien-trained Kyprios.
The father and son combination could have as many as 19 runners at this year’s renewal, with some of the country’s best fillies and mares coming from their Newmarket stables. Inspiral is well fancied to take the Queen Anne Stakes at 15/8, although she hasn’t managed to have a prep run yet this year. Having won on both of her prior seasonal debuts, however, she shouldn’t be disadvantaged by this. Emily Upjohn, who recently dazzled the crowd at the Epsom Derby Festival when storming home to take the Coronation Cup ahead of the favourite, Westover, is looking to be a likely candidate for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at 7/2.
With further big runs on the cards from the likes of Running Lion, Nashwa and Soul Sister, John and Thady Gosden could not be in a better position ahead of Royal Ascot and could be looking at their best year yet.
Charlie Appleby
Employed by Sheikh Mohammed to train for Godolphin, Charlie Appleby always has a tough squad of top horses in his armoury. Twice crowned the Champion Flat Trainer in the UK (consecutively in 2021 and 2022), Appleby celebrated his first Royal Ascot winner in 2015 when Space Age won the King George V Stakes, and has since tallied up a further 14 successes.
Last year’s Royal Ascot wins included Coreobus in the St James’s Palace Stakes, Secret State in the King George V Stakes, Noble Truth in the Jersey Stakes and Naval Crown in the Platinum Jubilee Stakes.
Having nearly reached Aidan O’Brien’s lofty heights at the fixture last year with a personal best of four winners, Appleby should be on track to improve on that number this year. Add retained Godolphin jockey William Buick into the mix, who has ridden a total of 93 winners at Ascot at a strike rate of 14 percent, and Appleby has a recipe for plenty of success at the 2023 renewal.
The Newmarket-based trainer has 16 entries at Royal Ascot currently, of which 2021 Derby winner Adayar, 2021 Irish Derby winner Hurricane Lane and last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Rebel’s Romance have the best wining claims, according to the market.
William Haggas
The trainer of 14 Royal Ascot winners in total, Willie Haggas’ crowning glory at last year’s renewal was the unstoppable Baaeed, who got the meeting off to a triumphant start when winning the Queen Anne Stakes on day one. His stablemate, Candleford, followed suit three days later by winning the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes under Tom Marquand.
Another Newmarket-based operator, Haggas’ best chance from his 16 entrants at this year’s meeting looks to be in My Prospero, who ran a good race when reappearing this season at Newbury in the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes for fourth place. The colt should be able to improve on that for his bid in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes.
Candleford also looks set to return to Ascot for the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes, and Haggas fans will watch Klondike’s potential seasonal debut in the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes with great interest.
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