Robbie Wilders

1 week ago | racingpost.com | Robbie Wilders

As Group 2 races go, the Hardwicke is the best in Britain and perhaps among the best in the world. The average winning Racing Post Rating is 120, the sort of figure handed to the winner of a modest open-company Group 1. The Jockey Club Stakes and Princess of Wales’s Stakes are the only other mile-and-a-half Group 2s open to older horses from both genders in Britain and fall short by comparison (RPRs of 117 and 118). Rebel’s Romance is a serial 120 RPR merchant.

1 week ago | racingpost.com | Robbie Wilders |Conor Fennelly

Royal Ascot’s two-year-old races are skewed towards precocious sprinters. You will find none of those in the Chesham, a home for future milers and middle-distance horses.   In the past four runnings we have seen a Derby runner-up (Lazy Griff), Yorkshire Oaks winner (Content) and two Huxley winners (Point Lonsdale and The Foxes). Before that we were introduced to household names Churchill, Masar and Pinatubo. Moments Of Joy is Aidan O’Brien’s only runner and that holds weight.

1 week ago | racingpost.com | Robbie Wilders

The essence of Royal Ascot is to establish champions at the midpoint of the Flat season, bringing together and testing the strongest early-season formlines. The Coronation Stakes exemplifies this. In a three-week period in May we have three mile Classics for fillies. With such a tight gap between the 1,000 Guineas, Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and Irish 1,000 Guineas, the Coronation is the first opportunity to welcome stars from all three. Zarigana is the only Classic winner running this time.

1 week ago | racingpost.com | Keith Melrose |Robbie Wilders |Graeme Rodway

Keith Melrose, Graeme Rodway and Robbie Wilders source the best single bet on day three of Royal AscotKeith Melrose: Right, chaps. We'll bring the readers in at this point, after we've tossed around a couple of lively ones in the handicaps. I was talking up Dividend at monster odds in the Britannia, and Robbie quite liked Light As Air in the King George V. But we couldn't get everyone to agree and so now, to business. Afjan in the Norfolk?

1 week ago | racingpost.com | Robbie Wilders |David Milnes

Few yards match the strength of Aidan O’Brien and John Gosden in the middle-distance fillies' department and they are mob-handed in the Ribblesdale with more than half the field. Yet the early market fails to reflect these superpowers sharing eight of the past nine Ribblesdales. Catalina Delcarpio has looked every inch a burgeoning star for Paddy Twomey and she disputes favouritism with Andrew Balding’s Musidora runner-up Serenity Prayer.