Odds correct at 1040 BST on 14/06/2018
Incredibly, Galileo has the worst Royal Ascot strike-rate of all the established sires in this list, a rare setback for the behemoth stallion. He has sired 21 Royal Ascot winners, though, including the greatest racehorse of all time in Frankel, so life isn’t all bad. This year his Order Of St George goes for his second Ascot Gold Cup, while his older fillies, Rhododendron and Hydrangea, are favourites for the Queen Anne and Duke of Cambridge Stakes respectively. Clemmie also holds that position in the Coronation Stakes. The Galileo dynasty rolls on.
Quiz question: can you name Sea The Stars’ three Royal Ascot winners? It took me an age. Answers at the bottom of the page*. Anyway, Sea The Stars’ overall record at Ascot is good and you would expect him to improve his Royal meeting strike-rate in the coming years with Crystal Ocean his most obvious winner-in-waiting this season. Sir Michael Stoute's patience with this horse (raced just the once at two) is paying dividends now and he looks an altogether more accomplished performer at four. Stoute has won the Hardwicke Stakes a record 10 times and Crystal Ocean deservedly heads the betting at 6/4 in a bid to take that tally to 11.
And so to the new-ish kids on the block and where better to start than the almighty Frankel, now in his third season with runners at Royal Ascot. Atty Persse got him off the mark for the meeting in the King George V Stakes last year and that win contributes to an excellent overall record at Ascot of seven wins, touching almost 30 per cent. That Royal Ascot record is going to improve significantly, you feel, and Frankel flagbearer Cracksman could give it a shot in the arm in the Prince Of Wales’s. Before that the unbeaten Without Parole goes for the St James’s Palace Stakes, a race his old man won, while 12-length Salisbury novice winner Sun Maiden is an intriguing contender in the Ribblesdale.