Royal Ascot Placepot picks - Paul Kealy's perm for the £400k guaranteed pool

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With four Group races to start the meeting, it often seems like day one at Royal Ascot is the most punter-friendly, so it's worth recalling that the Placepot dividend on the Tuesday last year was over £2,700, while it paid more than £5,000 a year earlier.

Still, a couple of years earlier than that the dividend was only 22 quid, and anyone who did a big perm hoping for a pot of gold will have been well out of pocket.

Charlie Appleby has the first two in the betting for the opening Queen Anne (2.30) in Notable Speech and Opera Ballo, but the former has fluffed his lines here twice and the latter can be very keen.

Docklands is a proper Ascot horse while More Thunder shaped really well on his return in the Lockinge, and they'll do for me.

Confucius has pretty much been confirmed as the Ballydoyle number one for the Coventry (3.05) with Ryan Moore booked, so he goes in, while I'll add Siouxperb for Archie Watson, who's had four top-three finishers from just nine runners in this.

It's one on the far side (Night Raider) and two on the near side for the King Charles III (3.40), with Big Mojo and American Affair the suggestions from the higher draws.

George Boughey was bullish about Bow Echo before his sensational 2,000 Guineas win, and seemed even more so last week, so he's the banker in the St James's Palace.

It's hard to leave Reaching High out of calculations in the Ascot Stakes (5.00), but I do expect Ismahane to run well, while another with a chance nearer the head of the market is Beylerbeyi, whose run over just 1m2f last time can be ignored.

Survie and Nahraan are the two I like most in the Wolferton (5.35), but arguably the most solid Placepot contender is Haatem given he is a dual winner at this meeting.

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Royal Ascot Placepot perm

2.30
3 Docklands
5 More Thunder

3.05
5 Confucius
18 Siouxperb

3.40
2 American Affair
3 Big Mojo
8 Night Raider

4.20
1 Bow Echo

5.00
1 Beylerbeyi
4 Reaching High
14 Ismahane

5.35
9 Haatem
12 Nahraan
16 Survie

2x2x3x1x3x3=108 lines

World Pool Tip: Ascending can leave exacta backers on a high 

I had a painful day opposing William Haggas-trained handicap favourites at York on Saturday, but I'm a glutton for punishment and will be leaving his Valiancy out of the Copper Horse Stakes (6.10) as I attempt to cop the exacta.

He won well at Hamilton last time, but it was a Class 3 contest that was largely full of older horses rated in the 70s and 80s, and this is a considerably tougher assignment with an 8lb higher mark to contend with.

Aeronautic was the main selection, but it was a close-run thing between him, Ascending and Sing Us A Song.

It's interesting that Ascending comes here rather than attempt a repeat in the 2m4f Ascot Stakes. He has form at this shorter trip, though, as he was second in the Ebor afterwards.

That form is obviously red-hot as the winner won at the Breeders' Cup afterwards and the third was placed in two French Group 1s, and Ascending's Group 3 run here at the end of April will have put him spot on for a return to a handicap.

Sing Us A Song fluffed his lines when well fancied for a three-year-old handicap here last year (played up in the stalls and missed the break), but he's grown up since being gelded.

James Doyle may have deserted him for Valiancy, but I like the way he stayed on again after being headed by the winner and third at York over 1m4f last time, and the return to 1m6f, over which he'd beaten the York winner last term, has to suit.

World Pool recommended bet: 

6.10 

1 Ascending
12 Aeronautic
14 Sing Us A Song

1pt combination Exacta (6 bets)

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