Siempre Arturo (Daniel & Claire Kubler)

Copper Horse Stakes, Tuesday - 66/1

Given that he was allowed to start at odds of 100/1 on his return last month, Siempre Arturo might have been expected to need the outing but ended up shaping tremendously well to finish three and a half lengths fifth of 14 to Wine Dark Sea over a mile and a half here. Held up in rear, he was travelling well early in the straight but was denied a run on the rail and had to switch wide, rattling home too late to suggest he would have gone close with a better run through.

Siempre Arturo was less than a length behind the equally luckless Opportunity that day but can meet that rival – a winner at Carlisle next time – on 8lb better terms. He’s untried beyond a mile and a half, but is better at that trip than shorter, and is well worth a try at further still, while connections also have him entered in the Ascot Stakes over two and a half miles.

There are no entries yet for the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes, and that would be another conceivable target back at the same course and distance as for his latest run. He won’t be 100/1 this time, but is likely to offer value once more and his best runs have come when racing right-handed, making Ascot an obvious target for him.

La Botte (green stripes) finishing second in last year's Britannia Stakes \ Healy Racing

La Botte (Harry Eustace)

Royal Hunt Cup, Wednesday - 16/1

It’s fair to say that La Botte and Jamie Spencer simply haven’t hit it off this season, the pair an eye-catching fourth in the Lincoln Trial at Wolverhampton in March but failing to build on that abundant promise since, with tactics perhaps to blame (exaggerated waiting tactics abandoned last time for front running up in trip), and it is interesting that George Wood has been booked for the ride in the Hunt Cup aboard a horse who had also been given a Queen Anne entry in the spring.

It would be easy to give up on La Botte as a failed experiment or an unfortunate cliff horse, but I’m convinced that there is a big enough performance in him to defy a mark which is now 2lb lower than when he finished best of all at Wolverhampton. The main reason for keeping the faith is that he really should have won the Britannia Handicap over the same course and distance a year ago, finishing second after travelling best but twice being stopped in his run, and a big-field mile handicap on fast ground at Ascot is a scenario that clearly suits him.

His stable is no stranger to success at Royal Ascot and this has surely been either Plan A or perhaps Plan B all along. He’s less reliant on the draw than some given his style of running, but it would add confidence to see him get a berth on either wing.

Oolong Poobong/ Zgharta (Ed Bethell/ Andrew Balding)

Kensington Palace Stakes,

Wednesday - 10/1 / 12/1

Zgharta and Oolong Poobong are another pair I’ve pulled up from the file marked “2025 Royal Ascot eyecatchers” with both running really well against a strong bias when finishing fourth and seventh of 25 respectively in the Sandringham Handicap 12 months ago.

Zgharta (green) winning the Darley EBF Maiden Fillies’ Stakes \ Healy Racing

That was Zgharta’s handicap debut and the first time she had raced in a double-figure field, and her inexperience told in the early stages, leaving her poorly placed, but she did some sterling late work to be beaten three and a half lengths (winner and third came from stalls 1 and 2 with the second from stall 6) despite being drawn in stall 25.

Oolong Poobong was always handy in the Sandringham, leading briefly two furlongs out from stall 21 but unable to repel the low-drawn trio who beat her. Both fillies have been lightly raced since, with Oolong Poobong absent until finishing a promising fifth at Thirsk four weeks ago, and that run should put her straight for another Ascot bid. Zgharta has been unplaced in four subsequent starts but none of those have got to the bottom of her and she is likely to be suited by a cavalry charge at this trip having shown she stays a little further.

If pressed now, I would nominate Oolong Poobong as the better handicapped – and probably the more progressive - of the pair, but I’d be loath to commit myself at this stage, with the draw in Ascot’s big-field handicaps sure to have a big part to play – that advantage ranged from high to low at various stages last year, but the big-field contests are likely to be dominated by those racing towards one of the rails, rather than the middle of the track.

Far Above Dream (James Owen)

Wokingham Stakes, Saturday - 20/1

James Owen is better known for his stayers than his sprinters but that may be about to change, as he has a fine chance of capturing the Wokingham Handicap with the progressive Far Above Dream.

A three-time winner at Goodwood, he’s an obvious contender for the Stewards’ Cup in August but showed that he doesn’t need a switchback track when putting up a career-best performance to beat recent winners Mirabeau and Dark Ace at Newbury last time.

The four-year-old joined Owen from Denis Hogan last spring and has since won five of his eight starts at around this six-furlong trip, doing so on ground ranging from good-to-firm to heavy in the process. He has a strong finishing kick for one who tends to race in mid-division and the stiff finish at Ascot will suit him, notwithstanding his fine record at the speed-favouring Goodwood course.

Progressing at the right time and at the right end of the weights, his Newbury victory guarantees that he will get into the field for the Wokingham and there are few with such a positive profile as he can bring.