A look at Royal Ascot - 2 horses on the opening 2 days

With Royal Ascot just over the horizon (we've got to get through Sunday evening first) and the ground now almost certainly set to be on the soft side of good with the recent rain I thought I'd just write a little about two of the horses I fancy most for the Royal feast of racing

Queen Anne - Endless Drama

I love Ger Lyon's Endless Drama for this race. He is a big, no huge, horse so will definitely have needed and come on for his re-appearance run in the Lockinge stakes the last day. He has a really high cruising speed and this test will suit him down to the ground, as will the softer going. Both the trainer and the rider Colin Keane love him and for good reason!

Colin Keane on Endless Drama:

“Endless Drama is just different gravy to anything else we have at home”

“He’s the best horse I’ve ever sat on”

“A horse like Brendan Bracken, who is a proper horse and a Group 3 winner, is not even good enough to lead him in canters”

"I’d be very confident of beating Belardo this time. We finished ahead of him in the Irish Guineas last year but he had 2 runs under his belt before the Lockinge and we were having our first run for over a year”

“It looks a wide-open race but our fella is a monster – I’m just praying they get a bit of rain”

“Endless Drama is just different class. He’s a monster”

Extremely positive from the jockey who is riding plenty of winners and a jockey I really like. Endless Drama has some very good form in the book already, his 2nd place in the Irish Guineas behind Gleneagles probably the standout, and I think there is loads more to come. At 10/1 with Bet365 this horse rates an absolutely cracking bet for the Queen Anne where one would imagine Tepin, market leader, will be vulnerable on softer ground. I can see him turning the form round with Belardo, who had the benefit of a recent run in the Lockinge,  and quite frankly I love his price.

Endless Drama going down narrowly to Gleneagles in the Irish 2,000 Guineas.

Duke of Cambridge - Usherette

An Andre Fabre filly must always be high on anyone's shortlist when looking at a race and in Usherette he has a very special horse. This filly came over here for the Dehlia stakes at Newmarket in May and absolutely routed a good field, leaving the likes of Amazing Maria, Jazzi Top and Arabian Queen in her wake as she romped to victory. That race was her comeback race for the season and one would imagine she will come on for that and be even better this time.

The beautiful Usherette at Newmarket

Usherette has raced 5 times in her career to date, winning 4 of those races, and is proven on soft and good ground so we need not worry about ground conditions on Wednesday. Andre Fabre absolutely loves this horse; in a recent press day ahead of the Royal meeting John Ferguson, Godolphin Chief Executive, has this to say

"I love talking to Andre Fabre about this filly," said Ferguson. "He gets the biggest smile on his face when talking about Usherette [and] he's an extraordinary judge."

The trainer is excited, the owners are excited and I am excited by Usherette. She will carry a penalty on Wednesday but that field she beat was pretty good at Newmarket, her form stacks up against her chief rivals (for example she beat Irish Rookie far more easily than Devonshire did) and everything looks set for her to add another Group 2 race to her roster.