Horse Racing Tips: James Boyle's Best Bets For Royal Ascot Day 5

For today's horse racing tips, our analyst James Boyle looks at the flat racing for Day 5 of Royal Ascot, with four selections now online.

As always, you’ll find the most up-to-date odds at the best horse racing betting sites, but our tipster’s predictions are researched early in the day and those prices could soon change. Odds stated are correct at the time of publishing.

14:30 Royal Ascot – Where Love Lives – 1pt @ 12/1

It’s hard to know if Where Love Lives would be mentally ready for this test had he been coming in on the back of his debut win at Thirsk, but Kevin Ryan got another spin into him in the National Stakes at Sandown a few weeks ago and he defeated Coventry runner-up Adaay Of Scarlett.

I thought that was impressive for the most part, especially the pace he displayed after not being the quickest into stride, and he battled hard when looking beaten in the closing stages.

There wasn’t much of an improvement on his debut effort in truth, when it comes to the form figure anyway, but it still puts him up with what a lot of these have achieved and the more experience he gets, the better I’m hoping he’ll become as he’s still green in the build up to races.

How he takes to the prelims here will be vital but if he copes with the build up to the race, I’m sure he can have a say in it. There’s a lot of talent in the locker, no shortage of speed and a good attitude towards putting in effort. 12/1 seems generous to me and accounts for the risk.

16:20 Royal Ascot – Saber Strike – 1.50pts @ 7/4

Saber Strike is an unoriginal selection and not hard to fancy at all, but already looks like the most talented horse in the race and that’s after just two visits to the racecourse.

You’d like to hope there’s more to come from him granted time and experience, and he couldn’t have offered up much more encouragement to date. His win at the backend of last season at Redcar (6f) was visually very impressive, scooting clear of a useful type in Cape Ashizuri.

Six months later, he reappeared in a Listed race at Newmarket over a furlong further and went off at 11/2, which now looks like one of the prices of the year. He wasn’t overly quick to stride and sat off a steady tempo, but powered to the front inside the last furlong and looked quality.

This will be the acid test but, if anything, things should be run more to suit his style of racing and I think he’s the only one of these with genuine Group 1 potential. That’s far from a genius statement but I really like him and if all goes to plan, the others will do well to live with his late charge.

17:00 Royal Ascot – Double Rush – 1.50pts @ 11/2

Double Rush always looked like a talent when trained by Charlie Hills but since moving over to Andrew Balding, he has added the substance to go along with the talent.

Following 221 days off, he ran over 6f at Newmarket in April and May, bolting up by almost five-lengths off 90 on the first occasion before a two-length win under a penalty – putting him up to 95 – a couple of weeks later. That was also an easy win against even better horses.

Now, he’s up to a mark of 105 and moves away from that track, the scene of his three handicap wins, but looks every inch a Group performer and there’s potential for improvement. I like his draw and also reckon he’s an easier ride than the other market leader, Binhareer.

This is the Wokingham, so you can’t get too carried away as it doesn’t take much going wrong to limit a horse’s chance, but I really like Double Rush and would have him in as the favourite. All the tools needed to be a massive player are in his locker – hopefully they’re on show.

17:00 Royal Ascot – Hammer The Hammer – 1pt @ 33/1

I’m also going to take a chance on Hammer The Hammer, who is on a recovery mission somewhat having failed to land a blow on his seasonal return at York when well behind Jakajaro.

However, it’s entirely possible that he wasn’t fully tuned up on his first run for 215 days and his first following a wind operation. Kevin Ryan, who has won this race a couple of times, likely had an eye on prepping him for today and has him in on a workable mark of 101.

Racing over the minimum trip at York probably put too much of an emphasis on speed and his draw led to a slot on the wing of his group as well, which didn’t really help his cause on the day.

There's another potentially problematic draw for him again with gate six, taking non-runners into account, but I think he’ll point and shoot off near the front, and may hang around for some time. A tongue-tie going on could help there and, at his best, he’s a very useful sprinter.