Saturday 19th October 2019

The big end of season flat meeting takes place at Ascot this afternoon, Champions Day with six super races taking place. Punting will be an unknown as the meeting is taking place on the inner hurdles course due to the heavy ground on the flat track.

This will result in a lot of unknowns. Firstly, the draw. This meeting has never taken place on the hurdles course, there could be a biased whilst who knows where the best ground will be after all the wet weather we’ve had. There could be a huge advantage low middle or high.

It’s a very good card of racing but mainly a watching brief for me. The only race I looked at is the Long Distance Cup at 2:10. Over 1m7f the draw is irrelevant.

Stradivarius should take all the beating and it will be great for racing if he does. Beyond him there’s some nice EW value to be had. I’ve had a little bit EW on Royal Line at 12-1. The trip might be a question mark, but Royal Line hasn’t been stopping over 1m4 and handles heavy ground.

At Wolverhampton this evening, King Of Arms is worth putting in the notebook win or lose. He’s smart, works very well but has taken a while for the penny to drop. Crystal Pegasus will be hard to crack but King Of Arms is worth looking out for and following, priced at 6-4.