Royal Ascot Day Two - Bonnie & Lora to strike for the girls

Day two of Royal Ascot  sees us slow down a bit from the first day & the three Group Ones plus Frankel to start with, it's still a great card with four Group races, a Listed handicap & the ultra competitive Royal Hunt Cup. We gave you Excelebration to win without Frankel & Side Glance yesterday (2nd & 3rd behind Frankel) & we'll be looking for more winners for Wednesday's racing below.

(Bonnie Brae can go one better than she managed in the Victoria Cup)

The Royal Hunt Cup is one of the handicaps of the season & with 30 runners in the field it certainly won't prove easy, in the last 10 runnings 7 of the winners have been a double figure price & currently there's only one horse on offer at less than 10/1 - the likeable Dimension. James Fanshawe has won this twice as a trainer & dimension won a handicap back here in September before a decent comeback run when coming 2nd to Bronze Prince at Lingfield. Dimension also fits the profile of a typical winner, being a 4 year old with potential for improvement but he has come 2nd four times in his 11 race career already & we don't like to see that.

Rock Critic is interesting as at 7 years old he's still only had 16 runs for Derot Weld & has clearly been difficult to keep healthy but connections have persevered & now have a very nice handicapper that has won 5 of its last 8 runs. For once though Weld's runners aren't absolutely flying & tempted as we are at a price of 20/1 we'll leave alone. The horse we like for this one is probably very slightly older than ideal but Bonnie Brae seems to have kept improving & is quite closely matched with the favourite Dimension on form linking them both to Bronze Prince. Dominic Elsworth's mare handles cut in the ground & she finished 2nd here on her seasonal debut in the very valuable 24 runner Victoria Cup which shows she should handle the race just fine. We can write off Bonnie Brae's last run where she came 10th as there was firm in the description of the going, top jockey Ryan 'Smiler' Moore is again partnering her & she should give him a great ride at juicy odds of 18/1. There are a few firms offering 5 places in the race so if you do back each way make sure to get on with those.

(Falls Of Lora can bounce back to form in the Sandringham)

We love the chances of the Godolphin horse Falls Of Lora in the last race of the day, she won impressively at Dubai earlier in the year but then failed to fire against the colts in the UAE Derby although the race didn't appear to suit closers that day & she should get a true enough pace here. Falls Of Lora has already won here when winning a conditions race in impressive fashion last September & this is certainly tougher but we think she might just have shown the highest level of form yet is getting 7 pounds off of top weight Electrelane. Electrelane has a mark of 109 courtesy of a length 2nd to Laugh Out Loud where she finished 10 lengths clear of the rest at York but we're unconvinced about those horses in behind although Laugh out Loud went on to win the French race with the same name as this.

Frankie Dettori is on the other Godolphin runner but it seems unclear whether he's first jockey now anyway & Falls Of Lora had his mount Pimpernel well behind when winning in Dubai. At odds of 20/1 back Mikael Barzalona to show why he's Godolphin's number one, he can guide Falls Of Lora home with a late rattle.

Selections:
4.25 Royal Ascot - Bonnie Brae each way at 18/1 (Totesport & Betfred + first 5 places pay)
5.35 Royal Ascot - Falls Of Lora each way at 20/1 (William Hill)