Four Best Bets for Royal Ascot 2026

Bow Echo (St James’s Palace Stakes)

The first one is BOW ECHO. George Boughey’s charge was a dominant winner of the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and I am struggling to see how Gstaad can reverse the form. He will arrive at the Berkshire venue a fresher horde of the two and has far more scope for improvement. The pair should be able to provide us with another treat with the unbeaten son of Night Of Thunder selected to maintain his unblemished record in the St James’s Palace Stakes.

Ombudsman (Prince Of Wales’s Stakes)

On the second day, OMBUDSMAN looks like a good thing and can become the first horse since Muhtarram to land back-to-back Prince Of Wales’s Stakes. Arc winner Daryz is much respected but John and Thady Gosden’s runner blew him out of the water at York last year and I just cannot see how he can gain revenge. He was so impressive when taking this race twelve months ago and his whole campaign has been built around a potential repeat success. He can create a bit of history on Wednesday.

Venetian Sun (Commonwealth Cup)

The more I look at the Commonwealth Cup, the more I am drawn to VENETIAN SUN. She has never been defeated over this distance, winning Group 2’s and a Group 1 and was really impressive at Haydock last time out. She was a good winner of the Albany Stakes over C&D at this meeting last year, where she beat Balantina, who was last seen winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. That is fantastic form, so Karl Burke’s filly ticks all of the boxes and is strongly fancied to stamp her class on the field.

Precise (Coronation Stakes)

To round things off, PRECISE can collect the Coronation Stakes. She could only finish seventh in the 2000 Guineas on her reappearance having won four on the bounce last year but took a major step forward at the Curragh. She comfortably turned the tables on stablemate True Love and appears to have all of the ingredients to a fourth Group 1 success on the third day of the Royal meeting.