Timefigure preview: Royal Ascot Saturday

Few two-year-olds put up the sort of performance that Natalie’s Joy did on her debut at Goodwood last month and she is worth backing to win the Chesham Stakes which opens the card on the final day of Royal Ascot. Her timefigure of 105 over Goodwood’s six furlongs is 11 lb higher than any other first-time-out timefigure achieved by a two-year-old this season and is the highest since 2008.

The list of horses in the interim whose first-time-out timefigure was the highest of the season include the likes of Cracksman, Canford Cliffs, Toormore and Verbal Dexterity, so there’s a very good chance that Natalie’s Joy is every bit as good as she looked at Goodwood. She has faster ground to contend with here as well as an extra furlong – though with the race being restricted to the progeny of stallions that won over nine and a half furlongs or more that shouldn’t be a problem – and, though there are a number of promising types in opposition one of them will have to be very special to upset Natalies’s Joy if she turns up in the same form as at Goodwood. She is the banker of the week from a timefigure perspective.

Crystal Ocean and Harry Angel make little appeal from a betting perspective in the Hardwicke and Diamond Jubilee, respectively, for all they are top on time, not least the latter who has been beaten at 7-2 or shorter in each of his four visits to Ascot, while Queen of Bermuda has a hard-to-gauge Wesley Ward rival already proven on turf standing in her way in the Windsor Castle.

The aforementioned Harry Angel won the Group 2 Duke Of York Stakes at the Dante meeting on the same card that George Bowen won the handicap over the same distance in an even faster time and Richard Fahey’s handicapper looks the forgotten horse in the Wokingham. Sure, he was carrying less weight than Harry Angel and has nearly 30 rivals up against him, including the unbeaten Dreamfield who still holds an entry in the July Cup, but very few sprint handicaps are won by six lengths on fast ground at York and a race-leading timefigure of 113 for that performance could arguably have been higher. His subsequent defeat under a penalty in a small-field on softer ground at Goodwood might have persuaded some that his York win was a false dawn, but he was a thriving three-year-old in 2015 when second in the Ayr Silver Cup and this fast-ground cavalry charge will bring out the best in him.       

George Bowen bolts clear to win the Infinity Tyres Handicap @yorkracecourse - Watch LIVE now on @ITV4 pic.twitter.com/rRmr50wSBe

— ITV Racing (@itvracing) 16 May 2018

Recommendations:

Back Natalie’s Joy to win the Chesham Stakes at 6/4

Back George Bowen (each way) in the Wokingham Stakes at 28/1