Quality and Quantity on Display at Royal Ascot’s Second Day
Day 2 of Royal Ascot lacks nothing in quality or quantity meaning there is plenty for punters to chew over.
Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf runner-up Cinderella’s Dream can score on Day 2 of Royal Ascot. © Getty Images
Key Facts:
- Enormous fields make four of Wednesday’s Royal Ascot races a difficult jigsaw to solve.
- Zelaina can continue Karl Burke’s fine form in Queen Mary.
- Sea The Fire fancied in Prince Of Wales’s Stakes on a firm-ground basis.
- Can O’Brien second-string score in the Queen’s Vase?
Enormous fields for two one-mile handicaps and a brace of two-year-old contests over five furlongs that feature almost 50 runners. It may sound like a punter’s bad dream, but it is real, and it is the story of Royal Ascot 2025 Day 2.
Don’t have nightmares, though, as three contests, the Group-2 Queens Vase and Duke of Cambridge Stakes and the Group-1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes on Wednesday’s card, do have a more straightforward complexion, giving punters some hope of beating the bookies.
Zelaina Top Tip for the Mary
Proceedings will begin at 2.30 pm with the five-furlong Queen Mary, where Zelaina tops the betting for trainer Karl Burke and owner Wathnan Racing (Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar).
Burke has won this contest twice in three years with once-raced fillies. This year, Zelaina is his leading hope. She too is once-raced – making all when winning on debut at Nottingham two weeks ago.
Beating two horses from top stables and posting good figures, Zelaina’s form looks solid. As a bonus, she is drawn in stall 15, meaning her rider, James Doyle, can head to whatever side of the course appears best.
The negatives include 11 of Zelaina’s 24 opponents having won last time and eight rivals being unbeaten. Nevertheless, she is one of the shortest-priced favourites racing on the day at the 2/1 odds offered by the UK’s online gambling sites.
Cinderella on the Ball in Group-2 Cambridge
Burke and Wathnan Racing have a second strong chance on the day with Fallen Angel in the Duke Of Cambridge Stakes (3.40 pm). The winner of last season’s Irish 1000 Guineas should appreciate this drop back into Group-2 company, and this filly is quoted on 3/1 odds.
We prefer Cinderella’s Dream, who was narrowly beaten into second in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf last season and readily won the Group-2 Betfred sponsored Dahlia Stakes on her return to home turf at the start of May.
Sea the Filly Playing with Fire
While Zelaina and Cinderella’s Dream are set to start as favourites, our selection in the 4.20 pm (the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes), See The Fire, can be backed at a tasty 11/2.
As the only filly in this Group-1 contest, See The Fire will receive a three-pound weight advantage over her eight rivals. A Group-2 winner on her most recent outing – when the Andrew Balding-trained daughter of ” Sea The Stars” produced a career-best effort – official ratings suggest she needs to find just a pound to trouble the market leader.
Improving fillies are always worth following, and See The Fire’s form on Wednesday’s forecast ‘good-to-firm’ ground truly attracts us to her. Four runs on the surface have produced a Group-3 and Group-2 victory, plus a neck defeat in a Group-1.
Scandinavia the Best of Two O’Brien Hopes?
Earlier in the afternoon, in the Queen’s Vase (3.05 pm), Scandinavia appears to represent some value as an each-way play. Aidan O’Brien, who boasts a record-equalling eight wins in this contest, fields our selection and the race’s betting favourite, Shackleton.
Both horses have won once and are stepping up four furlongs in trip. It is noteworthy that Scandinavia is a half-brother to the top-class Above The Curve by Justify – a sire renowned for producing hardy staying types.
Scandinavia may have the better form in the book, but O’Brien does not bring horses to the races for a day out, and his second and third strings should never be dismissed. This theory was underlined when Lambourn won The Derby for the Irish trainer two weeks ago.
Recommended Bets
- Zelaina (2.35 pm)
- Scandinavia (3.05 pm) *each-way
- Cinderella’s Dream (3.40 pm)
- See The Fire (4.20 pm)
