Ascot Tips: Berkshire Kameo can come out on top

We’ve got a very busy day ahead of us on Friday, with no fewer than seven meetings taking place across the UK and Ireland, including Day 2 of Newmarket’s July Festival.

Amongst the action is a competitive card at Ascot, where they have seven races from 14:15-17:10 on ground forecast to be 'Soft, good to soft-soft in places' on the round course, and ‘good to soft, soft in places’ on the straight course. We’ve picked out our Ascot tips for Friday, July 12.

Today's Horse Races

14:15 – Stockpyle @ 9/2

A competitive field of 11 gives us plenty to ponder here and there are plenty of legitimate candidates, including two last-time-out winners. Amongst those is William Muir & Chris Grassick’s STOCKPYLE, who is looking to complete his hat-trick here.

The son of Oasis Dream is half-brother to the excellent Group 1 performer Pyledriver and whilst he hasn’t reached the same levels as his more illustrious sibling, he is progressing nicely so far this term.

It was a strong effort from the five-year-old when making all the running to win at Kempton on his penultimate start and the third went on to win his next two starts.

Winning again at Chepstow last time out, Stockpyle made all the running once again to record a two-length success, despite racing pretty keenly throughout. A 7lb rise will make life harder but he’s one to watch until his limitations are exposed.

14:50 – Berkshire Kameo @ 4/1

Nurseries are often interesting puzzles to solve as two-year-olds can often find significant improvement upon switching to handicaps. The puzzle part comes from selecting the one who is going to progress the most and it could be Andrew Balding’s BERKSHIRE KAMEO in this event.

His first two starts were more than reasonable efforts and the form of his fifth at Newbury last month looks very promising, with the winner and the fourth both winning since.

This son of Kameko was very narrowly denied at Windsor when last seen, in a race in which it paid to be off the pace.

The handicapper has allotted him an opening mark of 78 which doesn’t appear to be too harsh on the evidence of what we’ve seen so far from him and this is a cracking opportunity to get off the mark.

16:00 – La Dame Blanche @ 7/1

LA DAME BLANCHE is set to become Irish trainer William Ross’ first ever runner in Britain and it would be no surprise if that first runner is a winner. Successful in the Cork Derby when last seen, she was 12lb out of the handicap that day and runs off a 2lb higher mark here.

It should be noted that she’ll have to do it without the assistance of 7lb claimer Rory Mulligan, but useful apprentice Aidan Keeley still takes 3lb off.

One would imagine that further improvement might be required from the five-year-old but it was clearly a career best last time so further progress cannot be ruled out. She does need to prove herself on softer conditions but Ross’ mare is definitely one to consider.

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