WHAT’S this new trend? A bevvy of Royal Ascot preview panels? Is the last thing we need more preview evenings?

But for all that, there is a case for arguing that the Royal Ascot extravaganza offers much more punting fun than the 21st century, small field, odds-on favourite, epidemic of the Cheltenham Festival.

Top class flat horses, fast ground, all the distances, and a collection of two-year-olds and top handicappers where you can be confident of a few big priced winners - if only can crack that regular straight track draw bias.

Yes, the races are not the be all season defining championships of the National Hunt festival, but it’s all quality and there’s something for everyone. A few of the more recent handicap additions may have been unnecessary and a bit weaker in quality but there are at least five puzzles each day.

Intermittent rain over the weekend should have ground conditions perfect but you can never quite predict the draw.

On good to firm last year, Perfect Power (7/2jt favourite) from stall 1 was a rare low draw winner in the big field sprints on the straight course. Though Naval Crown (33/1) from 20 just beat stable companion Creative Force from 1 in the Golden Jubilee.

Juvenile form

Gauging good impressive debut winning juvenile form is another puzzler. Last year’s two-year-old races gave up two favourites, Little Big Bear (6/5) and Dramatised (5/2) but you could have profited massively if finding The Ridler (50/1) and Holloway Boy (40/1) in the Norfolk and Chesham. How will the Wesley Ward speedsters hit the traps this year?

The two Godolphin stars against the filly Inspiral make the opening Queen Anne an intriguing opener. And Native Trail did look the better horse early last year.

Leaving the summer sprints to the Aussies has been good practice in recent decades. Coolangatta looks as good as some of the recent travellers.

Apart from sprint races where often final times show that there is little between top handicappers and Group 1 sprinters, I prefer to follow the Group 1 winners in Group 1 races rule.

However, the St James’s Palace is one race in recent years where the Group 1 winners have surprisingly often been overtaken by the later maturing colts. Without Parole, winner of a Sandown listed race and Palace Pier, just handicap winner of 98, beat the Guineas runners in recent seasons. Indeed, there are grounds for thinking that with a clearer run, Maljoom would have beaten the more fancied runners last year.

Cicero’s Gift and Mostabshir fall into that improver category this year. While many were taken by the former’s Goodwood win, I thought Mostabshir’s York win was seriously impressive and at 7/1 he is worth an each-way shout.

So despite Chaldean being a clear top-rated Dewhurst and 2000 Guineas winner, I’ll take a chance the Gosden runner again in a race he has won three times in the last nine years.

Wednesday

Wednesday’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes sees the rematch between Luxembourg and Bay Bridge, deemed by some to be unlucky at the Curragh. But Luxembourg has been in a couple of scraps now, and for all that he holds his head a little high, he looks up for the fight.

The Adayar who won the King George in 2021 will be a formidable rival back at this track where he dictated things over that mile and a half. You would expect him to be ridden prominently with his proven stamina. The faster going might swing things in his favour.

For many years the Gold Cup was the feature race, not just in name but as the meeting’s great spectacle race. Wins for Yeats, Estimate, Order Of St George’s battles, Stradivarius’ winning run, all long lasting in the memory.

This year’s has a Hamlet without the Prince feel in the absence of Stradivarius? And the new king is also missing as Kyprios, the dominant stayer of last year is injured. There is rain forecast for Thursday but still big questions on Trueshan, who on his day may have been the best of these.

The spotlight falls on last year St Leger runners, winner Edgar Eldarov and fifth-placed Emily Dickinson. The four-year-old filly seems to have been the Ballydoyle nominee since the news of Kyprios’ setback.

She did not look a natural successor on her three-year-old form where she ran 10 times. Yes, 10 times! Constitution Hill would faint with just his seven career runs.

She was fourth in the Juddmonte Irish Oaks and fifth, beaten three lengths by Edgar Eldarov, before winning in October. Is she good enough? It’s a difficult race to have a strong fancy and long shot winners are rare. Perhaps Edgar Eldarov will be good enough with Changingoftheguard a lively outsider.

Friday

Mawj was the overlooked filly going into the 1000 Guineas, it was easy to forget she went off favourite for the Queen Mary last year. Her rematch with Tahiyra is the highlight of Friday.

But while Tahiyra looks special and the verdict is 3-0 in her meetings with Meditate, at 7/1 the O’Brien filly might look a bit of value here. O’Brien fillies regularly progress through the year, she won the Queen Mary impressively last season from Mawj, and Aidan O’Brien’s comments would offer encouragement: “We think she’s still coming forward. She had a bit of a hold-up in the spring, so we knew she would take a step forward from Newmarket to the Curragh.”

It should be a good week, happy punting!