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Royal Ascot analysis: The key Timeform takeaways

By David Johnson

Horse Racing

Sun June 22, 2025 · 1M ago

As takeaways go, five days of Royal Ascot is akin to a family banquet meal from the Golden Dragon, with the Queen Alexandra perhaps that extra free dish you get because you spent a certain amount, but nobody really wants it. The feast served up before that was something to savour though, and according to Timeform’s Lead Analyst for the Flat, David Johnson these were the points to note.

The Gosdens are still a team for the big occasion

They haven’t always had things go their way in recent Royal Ascots, with their main jockey confined to the naughty step after one defeat too many back in 2023 and a man as erudite as John Gosden himself would surely find better vocabulary than ‘bouncebackability’ to sum up their week. But victories for Field of Gold, Ombudsman and Trawlerman in the feature races of the opening three days have taken them back to the top of the trainers’ championship and they look in the driving seat for the season ahead.

Field of Gold is now rated the leading 3-y-o in the world at 132p and Ombudsman the leading older horse in Europe at 130 while Trawlerman showed himself at least as good as ever with a rating of 127 to win the Gold Cup.

Field Of Gold and Colin Keane in isolation

O’Brien the dominant force in the juvenile contests

Much continues to be said about the obsession with speed on the breed, a factor contributing to changes to the conditions of the Windsor Castle for 2026 and the results of the Coventry and Norfolk show that the reliance on precocity and the breeze-ups (cannot call it cheap speed given the sums changing hands!) will only get you so far. Gstaad’s 111p rating for winning the Coventry is one of the higher in recent seasons and stablemate Charles Darwin is hot on his heels at 110p for winning the Norfolk.

We all love a potential Group horse in a handicap

Merchant was backed into favourite for the King George V Handicap and gave backers few anxious moments earning a rating of 110p. That’s 1 lb higher than what Desert Hero ran to for the same trainer/jockey in 2023 before he won the Gordon Stakes next time. That race or the Great Voltigeur will surely be on Merchant’s agenda. My Cloud again refused to spare the handicapper’s blushes in the Hunt Cup but the top performance in a handicap all week surely came from Never So Brave. His easy win off joint-top weight in the Buckingham Palace earned a rating of 122 – higher than that awarded to Docklands (121) for winning the Queen Anne.

Never So Brave posts a big figure

Chris Stickels emerges with more credit than the jockeys

Clerking isn’t anything like as easy a job as social media would have you believe and Chris Stickels and his groundstaff deserve plenty of plaudits for producing fast, safe ground that has ridden pretty much as described all week. A bias that swings from one side to the next on a day-by-day basis suggests it’s caused more by the tactics of the jockeys than the state of the surface, and the riders’ decision to shun the near rail on Friday having seen winners come right up it from high stalls on Wednesday and Thursday was hard to fathom.

Take A Bow Son, Take A Bow

Following in your father’s footsteps can make or break you and when James Eustace handed the licence over to his son Harry after a successful 32-year career at Highfield Stables in 2021, few would have anticipated the levels of success he’d achieve in such a short space of time, in particular the astonishing levels of success he’d have at Royal Ascot this year. From just four runners this week, he saddled the winner of the Queen Anne and Commonwealth Cup, the unlucky second in the Britannia and a fifth in the Ascot Stakes who would have finished closer with more luck in running. A stable that should continue on the up.

A great week at Ascot for James Doyle and Richard Brown

Wathnan a major force

Little was known about them when Courage Mon Ami and Gregory landed the Gold Cup and Queen’s Vase on their first starts in these silks at this meeting back in 2023, but few owners have come so far in so little time. Four winners followed in 2024 and a final day double saw it rise to five this year, all of them purchased privately as horses in training. As seen on many other occasions this week, deep pockets don’t guarantee success, but when Wathnan get the cheque book out, they get it right more often than not.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Sardinian Warrior might have been forced to miss the Queen Anne through injury, but his form certainly got a boost given he’d beaten Docklands in the C&D trial back in April. Similarly fast ground kept Almaqam on the sidelines in the Prince of Wales, yet he’d been able to keep Ombudsman at bay in the Brigadier Gerard. Connections will hope the patient approach pays off and they’ll presumably be working backwards from the Champion Stakes. Aidan O’Brien won the Coventry and Norfolk, despite Albert Einstein, who is regarded as his best 2-y-o forced to stay at home, while Lake Victoria arguably had her Irish 1000 Guineas form enhanced by the third that day, Cercene winning Friday’s Coronation.

British racing at its best

Going against a trend at other major Festivals this year, Ascot reported an increase in year-on year attendances across the meeting as a whole. Some factors cannot be controlled but the sun shone and the best took each other on. Sometimes the best solution is also the most straightforward one.

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