Marten Julian’s Weekly Roundup 16 June 2025

Although there is no disputing the quality of racing at Royal Ascot this week, there has not been anything like the build-up in the media that you have in the jumps season for Cheltenham.

There is no weekly ‘Road to Royal Ascot’ programme or regular updates on the betting markets with Johnny Dineen.

It may be a class thing, but over the course of the five days there are very few duds whereas at the Festival there are arguably a couple of fillers.

As for betting opportunities I hold true to my principle that a 5/1 winner of a 0-50 classified stakes pays the same as a 5/1 winner of the St James’s Palace Stakes.

However finding the former is not as straightforward, with the likelihood of far fewer form lines and very mediocre horses who seldom win.

Given the number of meetings held each day … there are five today, including Ireland … one cannot be expected to keep tabs on the form of every horse, so that is why it is important to specialise, for example with certain trainers or with specific race distances.

As an example I generally put a line through sprint handicaps but I know people who make out a strong case for focusing on them, arguing that with draw bias, going requirements and pace angles, that you can narrow down a 30-runner field to less than a dozen but with far longer odds than you would be offered in a 12-horse race.

Unlike Cheltenham, where there were a number of odds-on chances, the only one this week at the time of writing is Field Of Gold in the St James’s Palace Stakes.

I am not going to give a selection for every race of the meeting … an average of two or three a day, with value uppermost in mind. As you are probably aware my field of interest is the handicaps, noting horses that have been trained with a particular race in mind.

I have two that I’m especially keen on this week, although they are likely to be up against other horses that have had the same objectives. However some trainers are better at this than others, and I’ve had one of them marked down for his race since the early spring.

I hope that you enjoy what promises to be a spectacular week’s racing.

Bye for now

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