WHISPER it quietly when in the vicinity of National Hunt diehards, but there’s no week quite like Royal Ascot.

Big, quality-packed fields, international competition and a world-class racecourse - these frantic five days have it all.

The demand from personalities all over the world to be involved at the Royal Meeting is exemplified by the number of big-money purchases we’ve seen in the build up. Still, it feels like the lead-in to the meeting could be enhanced significantly with one simple tweak.

Given how much attention this week has on the global stage, it seems bizarre that we don’t have a clue of the possible fields for the majority of races until the six-day entry stage. Why not have the possible entries published for all races at least two weeks in advance?

For example, until Monday afternoon of this week, there were zero entries available for five of the seven races on Saturday’s card. With the action coming fast and furious once kicking off on Tuesday, it doesn’t give punters much chance to get a proper look through what’s coming up later in the week.

Of the 35 races scheduled at Royal Ascot, only 10 are currently early-closers at present; eight Group 1s and two handicaps (the Royal Hunt Cup and Wokingham). None of the two-year-old contests have massive long-range entry requirements, and that makes full sense considering how early the meeting comes in the life of a young juvenile.

Two-year-old races

Still, would a space of two weeks before the event not be long enough to know whether you have a horse worthy of entry at the Royal Meeting? For example, of the 21 runners declared for the Coventry Stakes on Tuesday, only two had run inside the previous fortnight. It was the same story for two of the 25 confirmed for the Queen Mary - priced as 50/1 and 500/1 shots after declarations respectively. There can always be a supplementary entry stage for late contenders to emerge too.

On the whole, if punters and racing fans are only learning about the likely shape of the fields until six days before 25 of the 35 races take place, that surely has a negative impact on their ability to approach an ante-post bet with confidence.

Yes, there is still the potential for ‘Willie Mullins bingo’ style scenarios with horses being entered for multiple races at the meeting, but wouldn’t it give more life to betting markets to have entries there, like we see in the run-up to the Cheltenham Festival?

Having early-closing entries for the Royal Hunt Cup and Wokingham already show that it can be done in terms of a handicap penalty structure for winners who come out after entries are made.

For the sake of handiness, it’s probable that trainers and owners like the current entry system as it is. That said, there could be a hidden benefit for them in having entries done early.

Given how much private purchasing goes on beforehand, it would be an easy shop window for connections to show that their horse is a possible Royal Ascot candidate by making an entry two weeks out.

Sales boost?

If they’re interested in selling, all types of international clients can see you have a horse in the mix and potentially make you an offer. Unless your chances are majorly obvious, overseas figures mightn’t spot you so easily. If they’re only catching your entry at the six-day stage, much of the trading business may already be wrapped up by then.

In an age of World Pool expansion and greater information expectations in racing than ever before, surely having more of an opportunity for racing fans to immerse themselves in the possible fields would only be a positive.

Consider this. Final fields and starting gates were published for this year’s Belmont Stakes on the Monday of raceweek. The race took place on a Saturday. What a chance that gives to gear up for the race properly. We barely have entries, let alone final fields, in the same number of days.

When there is so much talk about the best means of promoting the horses and races this sport revolves around, it feels like we are missing a simple trick by not having earlier information available. Such top-quality racing deserves a proper build-up.