Royal Ascot Day 3 Lays: No Gold medal for Stradivarius

Most winning runs come to an end in racing, Frankel being the only exception I can think of.

Few strings attached to laying Stradivarius

Stradivarius has won the last three Gold Cups, but this could be the year when his winning sequence falters.

Two seven-year-olds have won the Gold Cup, off at 16:15, in the last 90 years. Drum Taps and Yeats were both exceptional stayers and I wouldn't dispute Stradivarius is their equal.

Four-year-olds, though, have a solid record in this Group One and Subjectivist and Serpentine have plenty to recommend them.

Both are Group 1 winners. Subjectivist closed out last season with a win in the Prix Royal-Oak at Longchamp last autumn. He has since won the Dubai Gold Cup impressively and comes into the race a fresh horse having not raced since March.

Serpentine victory in last year's Derby seems to have knocked the stuffing out of him but he didn't run too badly in the Tattersalls Gold Cup at The Curragh last month - his first outing for seven months. There is no reason why he should stay two and a half miles but you would have said the same of Stradivarius prior to the first of his three Gold Cup wins.

Stradivarius ran a rare stinker at Ascot last October when favourite for the Long Distance Cup on Champions Day. Trushan won that by seven lengths. Spanish Mission was seventh and Stradivarius 12th of 13. John Gosden blamed that defeat on the soft ground but maybe there was more to it than that.

At the odds, there is not a lot to lose taking Stradivarius on.

Movin Time taking a huge step up in class

If there is one set of colours that goes past the past first when I don't want them to it is the yellow and black spots of Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum.

So it with some trepidation that I will be laying Movin Time for a place in the Hampton Court Stakes at 15:05.

The colt simply hasn't done enough so far to justify his forecast SP of 11/2. With the exception of One Ruler which has a 4lb penalty, they all carry 9st 0lb, yet Movin Time is officially rated 91 compared to One Ruler 112 and the favourite Mohaafeth 111. That's 20lb Movin Time has to find.

While Movin Time has been running in maidens, Snapraeterea, Roman Empire, Matchless and Pythagoras have Group race experience on their CVs.

How Movin Time can be the same odds as One Ruler is beyond me. The Godolphin Group 3 winner has come sixth in the 2,000 Guineas and the Derby and was runner-up to MacSwiney in the Group 1 Vertem Futurity Trophy Stakes at Doncaster last autumn.

With Newmarket gallop watchers keen on Mohaafeth and the Godolphin pair both pretty smart Movin Time looks a smart place lay at around 2.5.

Reality's form doesn't justify her Ribblesdale odds

The Ribblesdale Stakes at 15:40 features the first four home in the Newbury Oaks trial - none of which ran at Epsom.

Eshaada, Gloria Mundi, Aristia and Twisted Reality were all given more time to recover from that race and turn up here instead. Not that they would have been good enough to figure in a Classic in my opinion.

Their Sportsbook odds suggest they may not figure in the same order. Eshaada and Gloria Mundi are both 5/1, Aristia is 33s and Twisted Reality is 9/1 - the reason? the trial was over 10 furlongs, the Ribblesdale is over 12f.

The ability to stay the extra two furlongs is a massive consideration, and I would not be surprised if Eshaada and Gloria Mundi again outstay Twisted Reality who lacked acceleration at Newbury, failing to get within two lengths of the first two.

Divinely was third in the Oaks, 17 lengths ahead of the Cheshire Oaks winner Dubai Fountain. The fact Mark Johnston runs Dubai Fountain makes me think she will perform more as she did at Chester than when disappointing at Epsom. Both fillies have an each-way chance against a field of Oaks dodgers.

Noon Star was second to the Oaks winner Snowfall in the York Oaks trial, having help Loving Dream's persistent challenge at Wetherby.

There wouldn't be many, if any, Wetherby winners that have subsequently started favourite for a Group race at Royal Ascot but Noon Star's position at the head of the market is fully justified.

If she makes the first three, along with Divinely and any one of Dubai Fountain, Eshaada and Gloria Mundi, there won't be any place for Twisted Reality. The place lay's only hope is if she is ridden for a place and not for a win but on what she has done so far she needs to improve a fair few pounds to make the first three.