Royal Ascot Gold Cup tips: All eyes on Kyprios with Coltrane again in the mix

16:25 Royal Ascot: Gold Cup  

• Race details: 2 miles 4 furlongs, Group 1, 4-year-olds+
• 2023 winner: Courage Mon Ami (15/2) - Frankie Dettori (J), John & Thady Gosden (T)
• Recent Trends: 19/21 winners were priced under 8/1, 11 of last 19 favourites won

All eyes and a lot of money will justifiably be on red-hot favourite Kyprios, who was the Champion Stayer in 2022, winning all six outings, including this race when he famously denied Stradivarius a Gold Cup four-timer.

Planet Sport Bet Royal Ascot Special: Bet £20+ cash on any runner in the race and if Kyprios wins by more than 4 lengths, get a £5 Free Bet!

Injury deprived him of the chance to defend his crown in a 2023 campaign that was restricted to just two autumn outings (runner-up in both), but he has hit the ground running this season, landing both of his Irish outings, albeit when strongly expected to do so at massively short odds (2/13F and 1/12F).

Including that 2022 success, Aidan O’Brien has saddled the winner of Royal Ascot’s biggest prize on a record eight occasions, most memorably with the four back-to-back triumphs of Yeats between 2006 and 2009.

It took O’Brien and Ryan Moore until day two to open their Royal Ascot account this week, but the way the well-fancied Illinois and Auguste Rodin landed their odds in the Queen’s Vase and the Prince Of Wales’ Stakes suggests that the Master of Ballydoyle is producing his star performers in top shape, and it would be no surprise to see Kyprios match his stablemates’ exploits.   

Suggested best bet: Kyprios in the 16:25 at Royal Ascot

• Tip advised by Quasi’s Hunches on Tipstrr

Of the remaining eight contenders, it is difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff, because there is quite simply no chaff to speak of in a field of this high quality.

The betting market suggests that Gregory, Trawlerman and Vauban will be leading the challenge, and while they are each capable of making the frame, they have all come up short on their solitary 2024 outings and look unlikely to get the better of a tuned-up Kyprios.

With that in mind, more attractive each-way value lies in the form of last season’s runner-up, Coltrane, who did nothing wrong in coming a 3/4-length runner-up to the Frankie Dettori-inspired Courage Mon Ami 12 months ago.

Andrew Balding’s gelding reversed that result to land the Lonsdale Cup at York’s Ebor meeting two months later, and although unable to sustain that form when the ground softened in the autumn, his classy capabilities were already established.

Next best each-way option: Coltrane each-way in the 16:25 at Royal Ascot

A line can be drawn through his rusty-looking performance when contesting the Dubai Gold Cup at Meydan on his reappearance in March, although that sub-par run was at least useful in blowing away some winter cobwebs.

He looked much more his old self when next (and last) seen at this venue in early May, when he saw off the challenge of two Gold Cup rivals, Caius Chorister and Sweet William, to land the Sagaro Stakes for the second straight season.

That win was over a bare two miles, but he proved last year that the extra half-mile is well within his wheelhouse, and with in-form jockey Oisin Murphy eager to build on his three Festival wins already this week, we can expect Coltrane to be right in the mix again here.

• Tip advised by Opal Horses on Tipstrr

 

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