• home

Lord Glitters has bookies celebrating on Royal Ascot 2019 Day One

We had a brilliant first day of the 2019 Royal Ascot meeting, with six high-quality races taking place on Tuesday 18 June and Lord Glitters certainly sparkled in the curtain-raiser by obliging in the Queen Anne Stakes.

Barney Roy was sent off as the 5/1 favourite for the race, although the David O’Meara-trained Lord Glitters was able to land the spoils at 14/1 and it was certainly the start that the bookmakers wanted.

A bookmaker spokesman reported: “It was nice to get a big-priced winner in the first race at Royal Ascot, with the horse not particularly popular with punters.”

Things were even better considering that the horses in second and third were both priced at 20/1. Beat The Bank was runner-up in the race, while One Master came home in third.

The punters struck back in the Coventry Stakes when hot favourite Arizona obliged at odds of 15/8, with Aidan O’Brien only taking two races to get off the mark and it wouldn’t be the only winner for the record-breaking Irish trainer.

The King’s Stand Stakes followed and was billed as a head-to-head between the two horses at the top of the market, with Battaash sent off as the 2/1 favourite although Blue Point was able to win this race for the second year running.

The Charlie Appleby-trained charge pounded down the five furlong course and the favourite was unable to make the required ground, with Soldiers Call coming in at 16/1.

Appleby said: "I was concerned the ground might get too soft for him, but it can rain as much as it likes now! We've all been very much involved in this horse. It's great for William (Buick) being here and the team at home have done a fantastic job with this horse. To do back-to-back wins in this race is fantastic, as I knew he's going to have a great career at stud when he retires at the end of the season.

"During the winter we saw how much more professional he was. He's strengthened and when William got off him after his first start in Dubai he said he was a different animal. He's the finished article now.

"I've got a great team behind me and it's great for Sheikh Mohammed and his family being here. We'll give him a little break and work back from the Abbaye at some stage."

If the punters were feeling happy with that race, the St James’s Palace Stakes didn’t work out for many of them, with Too Darn Hot sent off as the 2/1 favourite although Frankie Dettori was unable to oblige on this horse.

King Of Comedy was well backed before the off and had a starting price of 4/1, although it was Circus Maximum who handled the one mile track the best, with the Aidan O’Brien horse coming in at 10/1 under the jockeyship of Ryan Moore.

O'Brien said: "Derrick (Smith), John (Magnier) and Michael (Tabor) all decided between themselves (to run in this race) and at 11.45am (on the day of supplementary entries) they let us know that they were thinking of doing this and we ran with it. It's hard to believe and we're just privileged to be a small part of it.

"It was a big challenge for the horse and it was a very difficult one to deal with - coming back (in trip) like that - and that's why he had the blinkers on, because he didn't have much time to learn."

The Ascot Stakes is generally regarded as a wide open race, with Mancini trading as the 5/1 favourite although it was The Grand Visir who came home in front at odds of 12/1.

It meant that trainer Ian Williams enjoyed a rare Royal Ascot victory, with jockey Richard Kingscote delighted to score a success on Day One of the meeting, while Buildmeupbuttercup was a better-backed runner-up at 7/1.

Time To Study (16/1) and Fun Mac (11/1) came in for those backing them each-way, while favourite backers had more joy when it came to the last race of Day One of Royal Ascot.

Addeybb was the winner at 5/1 second favourite, enjoying a two-and-a-half length victory over Magic Wand at 9/2. Elarqam was home in third at 5/1 and several punters will have enjoyed a tricast on these horses who were the top three in the betting.