Royal Ascot tips: Ruby Walsh previews Thursday card
Ruby Walsh believes Santiago and Serpentine are both big threats to Stradivarius in Thursday's Gold Cup at Royal Ascot.
Speaking on Paddy Power Media's ‘From The Horse’s Mouth’ podcast, he outlined his thoughts on all the big races of the day.
You can read them below or listen to them right here.
Gold Cup
Look Princess Zoe does need the rain and she needs the rainclouds to park on top of Ascot pretty much from 5pm this evening or Wednesday evening until race time on Thursday to be honest with you. She’s a very good filly, obviously her win in Longchamp in the Prix du Cadran, two and a half miles, she got up close home to catch Alkuin who had made the running. Yeah look I’d love to see her winning for Tony Mullins, for Paddy, Joe, Joey Sheridan, it would be a fairytale result, I still just can’t see it no matter how much rain falls. I could be wrong.
Rain won’t help Stradivarius and as we discussed the other day, I think there’s plenty of love for Stradivarius and a huge amount of admiration for him, but we’re looking for the winner of the race and I just think looking at him, he’s a seven-year-old colt going for his fourth Ascot Gold Cup, big heavy colt without a prep run, just I don’t know he hasn’t run since he beat Ocean Wind in April. I’d love to seen him ran a bit sooner, it’s hard to describe why but colts, just maybe he will go and do it, but I would take him on and to be honest with you maybe Santiago or even Serpentine seeing as they’ve put him in, I wouldn’t be surprised to see one or other of the four-year-olds take him down.
I think Amhran Na Bhfiann has to improve to be honest with you – I would be going with the other two, obviously Emperor Of The Sun has been well tipped up, Donnacha trains him, beat Search For A Song in Leopardstown a couple of weeks’ ago, but no I just thought both Santiago and Serpentine and Serpentine in particular looked like he would have improved hugely for his run at The Curragh. [Putting the Aidan O’Brien horses together is not the stupidest thing in the world at this stage?] No it’s not, I was often in that situation at Willie Mullins’s – you’re sitting there thinking which one of these will I ride and one doesn’t stand out and you know whichever one I ended up riding was going to be shorter purely because people thought that’s the one he’s picked. But it didn’t necessarily mean that you were on the right one, there’s no way of knowing. And look he’s [Ryan Moore] on Serpentine, Seamie’s on Santiago, I don’t know, they’re both 14-1 at the time of recording, is there any harm backing them both each-way.
Selection: Santiago & Serpentine each-way
Paddy Power: Evens Stradivarius, 9/2 Trueshan, 11/2 Subjectivist, 16 Emperor Of The Sun, Serpentine, Spanish Mission, 18 Santiago, 20 Princess Zoe, 33 Amhran Na Bhfiann, Twilight Payment, 50 Nayef Road, 100 Rip Van Lips, 150 Ben Lilly
Ribblesdale Stakes
It’s hard to split Eshaada and Gloria Mundi – there was only a neck between them when they met at Newbury so look, luck of the draw here that could be turned around, but will either of them get up to the form of Divinely and Noon Star, that’s debated, but Noon Star obviously it all ties in to Snowfall, but I thought Snowfall at Epsom looked much better than she did at York and I think Divinely was unlucky not to be a really good second. And actually had she not got hampered for the first furlong and a half of the home straight in Epsom, she may well have bridged that 16 length gap between Snowfall and the second. I think she probably would have shaved it down to Snowfall winning by eight or nine lengths rather than 16. That to me would show how you how far Divinely could have been ahead of the rest so I’m going to go for Divinely to beat Noon Star.
Selection: Divinely
Paddy Power: 9/4 Noon Star, 9/2 Gloria Mundi, 11/2 Divinely, Eshaada, 10 Dubai Fountain, Twisted Reality, 22 Ad Infinitum, 25 Aristia, Taslima, 28 Loving Dream, 33 Annerville, 50 Nicest, 150 Gwenhwyvar
Norfolk Stakes
I think it all depends on what happens with the thunder storms and whether they land in Ascot or they don’t – if they do land in Ascot, I’d say Cadamosto who’s been a non-runner now maybe five times, he’s unlikely to line up, they won’t chance him on slow ground. But if it is quick and he runs, he’s a big runner, but he has to have fast ground. And if the thunder storms do hit, I fancy Andreas Vesalius of Joseph O’Brien’s. I thought he was really impressive on soft ground at Naas, improved from his first two runs, but he does handle a cut in it and if we do get the rain, you know he’s going to go on the ground.
Selection (fast ground): Cadamosto
Selection (soft ground): Andreas Vesalius
Paddy Power: 9/2 Lucci, 5 Cadamosto, 6 Instinctive Move, 8 Project Dante, 9 Go Bears Go, 11 Nakatomi, 12 Perfect Power, Second Wind, 14 Korker, Twilight Jet, 16 Andreas Vesalius, 25 King Of Speed, 28 Navello, 33 Khunan, Little Earl, 100 Straits Of Moyle
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