It's day three of Royal Ascot and Punting Pointers duo Rory Delargy and David Massey underline their fancies on the card.
Racing betting tips: Thursday June 18
0.5pts e.w. Blue Hercules in 15:05 Royal Ascot at 50/1 (Paddy Power 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6) - min 50/1
1pt ew. Caballo De Mar in 16:15 Royal Ascot at 8/1 (Unibet, BOYLE Sports 1/5 1,2,3) - min 7/1
0.5pts e.w. Apiarist in 18:10 Royal Ascot at 22/1 (Boylesports 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6) - min 20/1
15:05 Royal Ascot
At a big price, BLUE HERCULES is well worth keeping onside. He’s caught the Trackside eye more than once this season and still looks very much a work in progress, but the right kind of one. You can see him sharpening up with every run, and his latest second over 10f at Haydock was another step forward — stuck to the task, kept finding, and shaped like a horse crying out for further.
It isn't a given he'll improve for a further step up in trip today, but it's possible, and stall 3 wouldn't be our preferred choice of starting gate either, something wider might have been preferable, but we're getting 50/1 and bigger for our money and for one so unexposed, that's worth chancing.
16:15 Royal Ascot
The bet for us is CABALLO DE MAR each‑way. He’s one Trackside latched onto very early doors, although I’m still trying to work out how he got beaten off 65 at Yarmouth when I’d had enough on for a decent holiday. Ah well, water under the bridge — he’s a different animal now.
Proven over the trip (he did win the Cadran at Longchamp last year), he's a bona fide Group 1 performer and there's still some juice in the price. I’d have preferred a touch more give in the ground, granted, but he handles quicker conditions perfectly well and his form this season stacks up every bit as well as Scandinavia.
He's game, he's consistent, and looks sure to run his race again.
18:10 Ascot
There's very little pace from the low stalls here; most of it is parked middle to high, and that little cluster in stalls 13–16 looks set to form the arrowhead. With that in mind, I’m expecting them to gravitate towards the middle, maybe a splinter group edging high, but the bulk of the action could unfold straight down the centre.
With so much pace on, I want something that’ll be held up, travel into the race, and ideally come from a middle draw. You could make a case for Hickory on that basis, but APIARIST fits the brief even better and looks a cracking each‑way bet.
He was eighth in this last year, travelling as well as anything before being delivered a touch too late. He returns in good nick after a desperately unlucky run at Thirsk, where Jack Callan went for a rails gap that closed the moment he committed. By the time he’d nudged his way out and found daylight, the race had gone, yet he still flew home to be beaten only two lengths.
His only other C&D run saw him finish a strong third last October, another effort Timeform flagged as an 'eyecatcher'. One of these days it’s all going to drop right for him in a big-field handicap, and with the race shape looking ideal, this could well be the one.
Preview posted at 09:34 BST on 18/06/26
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