Graeme North highlights a sole selection day three of Royal Ascot who looks to have good claims on the clock.
THURSDAY
Royal Ascot is not only the best meeting in the domestic Flat turf calendar but also the most traditional and so far it has been business as usual with Aidan O’Brien already set to become leading trainer at the meeting again and popular sire Mehmas extending his winless sequence at Royal Ascot after Wednesday’s Queen Mary to eighty-two, though the poor lad did come close to breaking his duck when Adaay Of Scarlett finished second in the Coventry.
Mehmas doesn’t have a runner in the opening Chesham Stakes as the race is restricted to the progeny of stallions who won over at least nine and a half furlongs in their racing days but Aidan O’Brien runs two, Aix La Chapelle and South Dakota, having won five of the last ten runnings. Aix LA Chappelle has the better claims of that pair on the clock but Time For the Moon, Pikachu and Sea Venture have all achieved a bit more on the limited evidence available and the last-named is particularly interesting.
Fillies have won three of the last ten runnings as well as providing plenty of placed runners from a small sample size and SEA VENTURE could hardly have been more impressive in the closing stages over six furlongs at Haydock, showing a fine turn of foot once she was pulled to the outside. A 100,000 guinea Breeze-Up purchase, she’s more ‘race ready’ than some of those lining up against her and should go very well.
