Royal Ascot Tips 2026

A 25-1 shot at Royal Ascot has a stronger chance of winning than a 25-1 shot at Plumpton or Windsor on a Monday. The reason being that most 25-1 shots who run at the smaller tracks midweek are available at such lengthy odds because they have either shown little or are woefully out of form. There are plenty of 25-1 shots at the big festivals who have top-class back form and/or have the potential to win at the highest level. Take last year’s Coronation Stakes winner Cercene, who was allowed to go off at 33-1 despite finishing in the top three in their previous two races the previous month. Noble Champion was sent off at 25-1 for the Jersey Stakes off the back of a couple of poor runs. There have been plenty of other big-priced winners in recent years - who could forget Nando Parrado winning the Coventry Stakes at 150-1 at Royal Ascot in 2020 or Valiant Force winning the Norfolk Stakes at the same price in 2023. Do not be fooled into thinking big prices cannot do the business at the big festivals. They can.

The contests at Royal Ascot have always been competitive, especially the handicaps, and you can find many bookmakers offering four or more places on specific races. One of the biggest betting races at Royal Ascot is the Royal Hunt Cup, with last year’s race having attracted 30 runners. Plenty would have been on the favourite My Cloud, who came away victorious, but imagine if you had a stake on 50-1 shot Bopedro, who ran on brilliantly to finish third. If you had backed him to win only, you would not be celebrating at all - even if you had outlined him to run a big race - but there would have been some compensation had you placed an each-way bet on him. A quarter of the odds at 50-1 is 12.5-1, so a healthy profit would still have been made, which is no easy task in those fiercely competitive handicaps.

Yeats won four Ascot Gold Cups, Best Mate three Cheltenham Gold Cups and lstabraq three Champion Hurdles. Tiger Roll won two Grand Nationals. It’s clear that festival form has a habit of recurring. Stradivarius completed a hat-trick in the Gold Cup before being defeated in it twice, while Dream Of Dreams had been agonisingly denied twice in the Platinum Jubilee Stakes before making it third time lucky in 2021. Make sure you do not ignore horses who have previously been beaten at Royal Ascot either. Juan Elcano had finished only fourth in the 2020 Hampton Court Stakes but bounced back to win the Wolferton Stakes in 2021. Track form is also key. Coltrane won the 2022 Ascot Stakes and was victorious in the Sagaro Stakes in both 2023 and 2024. Those are just a few examples and course form, particularly at the royal meeting, often proves vital.

So much value and so many options. It is ludicrous elsewhere but having two bets in the one race is not a bad idea at big festivals such as Cheltenham and Royal Ascot. Indeed, it makes perfect sense. With so many places on offer with firms in the big handicaps at the big festivals, having two bets each-way is actually a shrewd move. If firms are offering a quarter of the odds of the first five places in handicaps, two each-way bets are advised. In the 2022 Royal Hunt Cup, Legend Of Dubai was sent off the 7-2 favourite in a race featuring 29 runners. Several firms were offering five places each-way and you would have covered your stake had you backed the fancied Astro King, or outsiders Sinjaari, Tempus and Intelligent. That’s without mentioning if you picked the 13-2 winner Dark Shift.

Horses often begin their racing careers as a two-year-old, so when it comes to Royal Ascot many lack experience. With little form to decipher, punters must look for other angles and breeding can often give an indication of the up-and-coming horse, at least on paper. As a rudimentary rule of thumb, a stallion's progeny (sons and daughters) will tend to follow in the mould of their sire. Sprinters tend to sire horses whose main attribute is speed, stayers tend to produce horses whose forte is stamina, while milers usually fall somewhere in between.

One bet consisting of two selections in different races. Both horses must win (or place if the bet is each-way) to guarantee a return. If the first selection wins, everything that would have been returned is then staked on the second selection. This is a good way of multiplying the value of two selections and each-way doubles are popular as the place part of the bet runs on to the second selection even if the first doesn’t win. A place double will often yield enough for the full stake to be returned should both selections make the places, so it’s a solid way of attempting to cover your stake on the win part of the bet.

Similar to a double bet but containing three selections rather than two, a treble is a single bet on three horses in different races. All three selections must win (or place if the bet is each-way) to guarantee a win with the returns of the first selection staked on the second, then the returns of the second staked on the third. This is a useful way to multiply the odds on several horses.

An accumulator is a bet that combines four or more selections in one bet. As with doubles and trebles, this is a group of horses in different races and all of them must win (or place if the bet is each-way) to guarantee a return. Due to the high number of selections, the odds are bigger and the risk is greater but, with so much accumulating, the reward for a win is often substantial.

This is one of the most popular multiple bets among racing punters and the clue is in the name as a Lucky 15 consists of 15 bets on four horses in different races. That equals four singles, six doubles, four trebles and a four-fold accumulator. The beauty of the Lucky 15 is that only one selection of four must win to guarantee a return and the majority of bookmakers will offer incentives to play the bet. Most will pay out at double the odds if you select one winner, while several pays a bonus of up to 10 per cent for four winners. The problem is that even if one selection wins at double the odds, it’s highly unlikely the original full stake will be covered and you can still end up losing on the bet despite having had a winner.

Basically a Lucky 15 without the four single bets, a Yankee consists of a total of 11 bets on four horses in different races. That equals six doubles, four trebles and a four-fold accumulator. Given we’ve forsaken the singles, a minimum of two selections must win to guarantee a return but that should at least cover the initial outlay and in most cases, two winners will secure a profit.