Horse Racing Tips: Victorious to come out on top in the Queen Mary

One of the best weeks of the year is upon us and it’s Day 2 of Royal Ascot on Wednesday. The action doesn’t stop there, however, and we have a further four meetings in Britain.

Worcester’s National Hunt fixture gets us underway in the afternoon at 13:35 and Hamilton follows shortly after at 14:15. Ascot’s Day 2 card, which starts at 14:30, features the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes and the evening entertainment is provided by Ripon (17:57-20:30) and Ffos Las (17:42-20:45).

We have three strong fancies to follow across the cards on Wednesday and amongst them is an exciting Aidan O’Brien-trained filly in the opening race at Royal Ascot.

14:30 Ascot - Victorious @ 9/2

It seems like Aidan O’Brien unlocked the secret to success in Royal Ascot’s two-year-old races last season, as he won three of them with very impressive performers. True Love won this race for O’Brien last year and the unbeaten VICTORIOUS can do the job here.

One look at her pedigree is enough to put her under serious consideration, but she brings the best form to the table, too. Making her debut at Naas in April, she was an easy winner over 6f on that occasion, and any first-time-out juvenile winner for O’Brien is one for the notebook.

Connections decided to run her in a Group 3 over the same course and distance next time and she showed a good attitude to score by a neck. It’s worth noting that the front two were six lengths clear of the rest and were clearly the two to take out of the race.

This daughter of Wootton Bassett is related to Ballydoyle’s excellent mare Minding and the drop back to 5f should be no problem on the evidence of her most recent run. The rest of the field probably has a bit to find in order to match her form and progress can’t be ruled out.

15:25 Hamilton - Canaria Queen @ 7/1

Tim Easterby’s CANARIA QUEEN has been in good form so far this season and the six-year-old already has three victories to her name. Her course record stands out and yet another victory could be on the cards for this daughter of Pastoral Pursuits.

She has finished first or second in each of her last four starts, with two of those resulting in victory, and it looks like she’s ahead of the handicapper at the moment. Showing a good attitude to score at Musselburgh last month, she then finished second twice at Ripon.

Easterby’s mare was a very comfortable winner at Hamilton last week, and she’s effectively 1lb well in, according to the handicapper. Carrying a 5lb penalty on this occasion, she’s due to go up 6lb, so now could be a good time to catch her.

19:15 Ffos Las - Marlborough Place @ 11/1

Adrian Wintle’s Irish import MARLBOROUGH PLACE is very lightly raced and could be of interest on handicap debut here, having had just three previous starts. He showed plenty when third by a length at the Curragh on debut for previous connections last June.

The son of Showcasing got off the mark over a mile at Limerick after that, showing a good attitude to score by a head, and he wasn’t beaten too far when fourth under a penalty in a Kempton novice on stable debut. Improvement is expected and 83 is a fair opening mark.