Royal Ascot 2019: Aidan O'Brien begins with two wins as favourites have day to forget
Re-live the action from the first day at Royal Ascot
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Hitting the ground running has not quite been the style of Aidan O'Brien at Royal Ascot in recent seasons - but an opening-day double at this year's meeting swiftly changed such an approach.
Having failed to saddle a winner on the first day of the meeting for the past two seasons, there might have been a few willing to discount runners saddled by the master Ballydoyle trainer on Tuesday, given his recent trend of starting the event slowly and finishing with a flourish.
However, those willing to ignore the statistics and follow the man that has dominated proceedings on the biggest stages in Britain were well rewarded, to set what the nine-times leading trainer at Ascot will be hoping is a theme that will continue throughout the rest of the meeting.
After watching Arizona and Ryan Moore leap to the head of the market for next year's 2000 Guineas with victory in the Coventry Stakes, O'Brien pulled off what looked a real masterstroke when dropping Derby also-ran Circus Maximus back to a mile to capture the St James's Palace Stakes.
Please allow a moment for the blog to load...
Latest odds
Queen Anne Stakes
Mutashry – 11/2
Le Brivado – 6/1
Barney Roy – 6/1
Laurens - 7/1
Hazapour – 12/1
Accidental Agent – 16/1
Matterhorn – 18/1
Lord Glitters – 20/1
Olmedo – 20/1
One Master – 25/1
Beat the Bank – 25/1
Sharjah Bridge – 25/1
Stormy Atlantic – 28/1
Romanised – 33/1
Dream Castle – 33/1
Mythical Magic – 80/1
(Win 28% more at Royal Ascot by placing bets on Oddschecker)
Our prediction
The Royal Ascot curtain raiser is a very tightly contest race between four evenly matched front-runners. Le Brivido, Mustashry Barney Roy and Laurens are the likely winners in the 16-strong field.
Winning the Lockinge at Newbury in the run-up to this race is usually a good indicator as to who will win, and that points to a Mustashry victory, who beat Laurens (second) and Le Brivido (fifth) one months ago.
Barney Roy won this race in 2017 in fine style but struggled to build on that the following season. The Charlie Appleby-trained horse has however shown recently signs of improvement at Ascot and Longchamp, France, in his preparation so should be given serious consideration.
The horses are making their way towards the trap, we're less than five minutes away from it all getting underway!
They're off!
Royal Ascot 2019 is up and running!
They're away in the Queen Anne Stakes.
Accidental Agent is left in the stalls!
Reaction
Winning jockey Daniel Tudhope: "The race panned out perfect for him."
Accidental Agent
The opening race got underway without one horse. Accidental Agent, last year's winner, did not leave the stalls because it refused to race and has therefore been declared a runner.
"Having reviewed the start, the Stewards were satisfied that ACCIDENTAL AGENT had refused to race and was deemed to be a runner," the British Horse racing authority confirmed.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments