Royal Hunt Cup winner advised @ 12/1 plus 50/1 2nd

Day two at Royal Ascot was a more productive one for followers of the AOTF Royal Ascot Update with Wild Tiger (advised @ 12/1) clinging on to a narrow victory in the Royal Hunt Cup on Wednesday. Victory for the five year old provided Saeed Bin Suroor with his third win in the one mile cavalry charge. The gelded son of Frankel was having only his sixth career outing maintaining his 100% record in the UK in the process. Stepping back up in trip, Oisin Murphy's mount was always to the fore before displaying a terrific attitude to hold off the late challenge of Sonny Liston who produced a career best in second racing off a huge weight of 9st 13lb and an official rating of 113. 

The second day kicked off with the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes and Karl Burke claimed the five furlongs contest for the second time in three years with Leovanni scoring by a length and three quarters. The Kodi Bear filly was acquired for £190,000 at the breeze-ups in April and won decisively on her debut at Nottingham a fortnight ago. Emerging from stall 10, James Doyle's mount was prominent throughout before striking for home. Her trainer indicated that she will stay six furlongs later on with races like the Lowther Stakes and Cheveley Park Stakes at York and Newmarket respectively likely to come under consideration. As far as the selections in the Update were concerned, they produced mixed feelings. Mighty Eriu (50/1) came from nearly last to finish second under Gary Carroll. Like the winner, she had only raced once beforehand and it was an excellent performance. In contrast, Kassaya's effort was the most frustrating of the day. The subject of huge market support - advised at 16/1 and sent off 7/2 favourite - Andrew Balding's filly travelled strongly and still had plenty to offer when repeatedly denied a clear run. The daughter of Kingman eventually finished twelfth and was seven lengths in arrears of Leonvanni. We will never know but I would suggest the Juddmonte filly would have been placed at least. Her ante-post backers can feel hard done by. The third home Maw Lam (50/1) also received a favourable mention in the Update and her effort confirmed that she was unlucky not to win the Hilary Needler Stakes at Beverley on her previous start. Adrian Nicholls' filly wasn't the quickest away once again but she finished best of all - beaten a couple of lengths, the daughter of Acclamation covered the final furlong in 11.72 seconds compared to Leovanni (12.08 seconds) and Mighty Eriu (12.10 seconds). She deserves to win something similar. 

The unraced two year old highlighted on page 6 of the Royal Ascot Update runs at the weekend - it will be disappointing if he can't make a winning start to his career.