Mr Lupton is very well at present

With one day to go there is ground to be made up in this corner where Royal Ascot is concerned. No excuses have been put forward for Mecca’s Angel’s very disappointing effort in the King’s Stand on Tuesday and I think it was probably just a question of an off day. She has been very consistent and this was too bad to be true, though I suppose you might argue we could have been saved by the price. I would have drawn a line between 7/4 and 6/4, the latter being very skinny in such a big field with Profitable also a danger on their running at Haydock. Still, there is no doubt the bigger price was available, so no way out.

It’s always easy afterwards but in Jeremy Noseda’s position I think I’d have taken Nemoralia out of the Coronation Stakes today. He was adamant after York that she needed a fast surface and she was never going to get it here. Sure, it dried out to a degree and she ran a good second to a very talented filly after a troubled run in the straight.

But these were genuine Group 1 performers, some with experience in the French or Irish 1000 Guineas and she needed everything going for her. Also, and I promise you I’m the last man to criticise jockeys, I think Olivier Peslier’s very best days are behind him and I thought so a couple of years ago. He was not well positioned on Friday and, by the time he got clear, the winner was away and gone. Not a good day for Peslier and not a good day for Ryan Moore, either; I wonder what he makes of it when the apparently lesser fancied of O’Brien’s runners comes good? It happened in the first and the last on Friday and it would be interesting to know what was said beforehand.

There was a good deal of flannel spoken on Channel 4 after the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes. The chances of the placings being altered were remote because Moore was trying to go through a diminishing gap in the first place. Fran Berry had his whip in his right hand and could not have done much more to keep Kinema off his rivals. Maundering on about whether Moore would have got the race if he’d finished second was pointless. He shouldn’t have gone for the gap in the first place. If a winning chance had indeed been compromised, which is unlikely, he’d have been placed second behind Elite Army with Kinema put down to third. The stewards very quickly decided that this was not a tenable argument and they were right.

Incidentally, there is one other point to make about Royal Ascot. Godolphin may not be winning the Group 1 races they crave but their horses are running extremely well. The problem is that they often have at least two in a race and it’s hard choosing between them but I’m coming round to the idea that, in valuable handicaps, it may be worth backing them across the board. It wouldn’t have done any harm this week.

My worry about Peslier has a bearing on Saturday when MR LUPTON, against the odds, gets into the line-up for the Wokingham. He was an impressive winner a week ago and I think he will go very close again. Big field specialists include Topi and Georg Dryden, with the latter to be ridden by Frankie Dettori  –  a first for Anne Duffield?

The Diamond Jubilee features a rematch between Magical Memory and SUEDOIS  –  I just favour the latter  –  and I may rely on ORIENTAL FOX to repeat the dose in the Queen Alexandra Stakes after prevailing last year.

I shall leave the other meetings to the line on Saturday morning, though I canny see much at this stage.