The top stayers in flat racing take centre stage on Thursday as the prestigious Gold Cup headlines a top-class card at Royal Ascot.
The Group 1 event has attracted 14 runners and is guaranteed to generate a ton of traffic on horse racing betting sites before the stalls open.
With Day 3 at the Royal meeting featuring several other competitive races, we take a look at some of the horses who could run well on Thursday.
Eldar Eldarov will bid for a second successive Royal Ascot success in the Gold Cup following his narrow victory in the Queen’s Vase last year.
The four-year-old has never previously raced over further than two miles, but trainer Roger Varian is confident he will get the trip.
The horse ran an excellent race on his seasonal reappearance, staying on in the Group 2 Yorkshire Cup to finish half-a-length adrift of Giavellotto.
The 2022 St Leger winner is a top-priced 7/2 on betting apps and those odds will likely attract plenty of interest from savvy punters.
Top American trainer Wesley Ward is hoping history will repeat itself when his American Rascal lines up in the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes in the opening race on Day 3.
The bay Curlin colt is out of Ward's sprint mare Lady Aurelia, who recorded two hugely impressive victories on her three visits to Ascot.
American Rascal lived up to his lofty breeding on his first outing at Keeneland in April, romping to a ridiculously easy 10-and-a-half length success.
Ward has been extremely bullish about the horse’s chances in the Norfolk and odds of 10/3 with 10bet look too good to ignore.
Top Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien has an intriguing contender in the King George V Stakes, with Bertinelli seemingly a Group-race winner in the making.
Bertinelli finished second behind Alder at Cork on his seasonal reappearance, and the form was subsequently franked when that horse finished second in the Dee Stakes at Chester.
O’Brien was considering running Bertinelli in the Lingfield Derby Trial, but opted to target the lucrative London Gold Cup at Newbury instead.
Having won that race, the horse looks a solid each-way bet at odds of 7/1 on UK betting sites to run another blinder on Thursday before stepping up in class.
