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MEGAN NICHOLLS ROYAL ASCOT REVIEW – STANDOUT RUNNERS & HORSES TO WATCH
What a week! 80/1 winners, juveniles with big futures and a Gold Cup that will live long in the memory – it’s fair to say Royal Ascot 2024 had it all. BetMGM horse racing ambassador Megan Nicholls had a solid week, tipping a couple of decently priced winners, and now she’s reviewed the whole week exclusively for us.
Bedtime Story
Obviously Bedtime Story was incredibly impressive on Saturday. She’s not the biggest filly and still needs time to fill into her frame and is actually quite like her mum, Meccas Angel.
She’s clearly got plenty of speed from her dam but also given she’s by Frankel, you’d like to think she’ll have stamina too.
It looked like a tidy Chesham and she’s absolutely obliterated them, so you’ve got to think she’s a Guineas filly all over.
Aidan [O’Brien] has two very smart fillies and it was hard not to be impressed by Fairy Godmother too – but I have a feeling Bedtime Story is a bit special.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they kept Fairy Godmother over six furlongs and let Bedtime Story go up to a mile but it’s certainly not a bad problem to have.
They are two incredibly talented and exciting fillies moving forward, though I do really think Bedtime Story might just be the better of the pair.
Portuna Fortuna
I thought the race of the week at Royal Ascot was the Coronation Stakes simply because, bar Fallen Angel, all of the best three-year-old fillies turned up and ran to their best.
There didn’t look to be any hard luck stories and it was good to see the form of all three Guineas stand up.
Portuna Fortuna was really impressive although I do think she got a peach of a ride from Tom Marquand who deserves a huge amount of credit. He was tactically so aware and got the splits perfectly.
I’m sure we’ll see plenty of them take each other on again throughout the season and I would imagine some of their connections will be looking at the Breeders’ Cup as an end-of-season target.
Soprano
We obviously went down to George Boughey’s yard a few weeks ago and he put up Soprano as one to keep on side, so hopefully you listened to him!
She’s had a few frustrating days but stepping up in trip seems to have worked wonders as she saw it out really well on her first start over the mile in the Sandringham.
Billy Loughnane gave her an exceptional ride and it was further evidence of the ability he has as a jockey. It reminded me a bit of Jamie Spencer as he really bided his time and just let the race develop before unleashing her in the final furlong.
Connections will surely be looking to pick up some Black Type next and if that goes to plan, they’ll be able to start thinking about even bigger targets for later in the season.
King’s Gambit
Inevitably at Royal Ascot you’re always going to get a few horses that fly home having met traffic problems or had a wide draw and King’s Gambit was certainly one of those.
This is a really talented horse and I think he lost little in defeat in the Hampton Court. He ran an absolute blinder from a very tricky position and I’ve got no doubts this is a Group-class horse and while he might go off a short price next time, you’d be brave to bet against him given how well he finished off his race.
Sean Levey gave Jayarebe a great ride. He’s another horse with a big future but it was hard not to feel King’s Gambit was very unlucky not to win the race and he’s the one horse who I left the meeting feeling we haven’t really scratched the surface with yet.