Penworthy

Could the King land his first Royal Ascot winner?

  • From Spectator Life
(Credit: Getty images)

You don’t need to be a genius to know that if you are training for HM The King and HM The Queen, then it would be a shrewd career move to land a Royal Ascot winner for them later this month.

This is, of course, the first time that the King and Queen will be having runners at the famous meeting under their new titles. Their trainers know that if they can engineer a winner for the royal duo at Ascot’s five-day event, it will generate hugely positive headlines all over the news and sports pages.

I think the King and Queen have at least two first-rate chances of a winner at the meeting and I am backing one of those horses now ante-post and keeping a watching brief on the other one.

The one to back is SAGA, who has to be one of the unluckiest horses in training. The John and Thady Gosden-trained four-old gelding should have won at Royal Ascot last year when Frankie Dettori overdid the hold-up tactics in the Britannia Stakes.

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