Royal Ascot 2025: updates, previews, full results and more from day five's races

The Guardian

4 hours ago

Update:
Date: 2025-06-21T10:13:14.000Z
Title: - Chesham Stakes (7f)', '
Content: Good morning. And after yesterday's sojourn to Ascot in my finery (of which more later) here's the run down of today's action and after ginving you the going and non-runner details I will start publishing Greg Wood's previews of all the races.
2.30pm - Chesham Stakes (7f)3.05pm - Hardwicke Stakes (1m 4f)3.40pm - Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (6f)4.20pm - Jersey Stakes (7f)5.00pm - Wokingham Stakes (Heritage Handicap) (6f)5.35pm - Golden Gates Stakes (Handicap) (1m 2f)6.10pm - Queen Alexandra Stakes (2m 6f)
Update:
Date: 2025-06-21T10:07:16.000Z
Title: Preamble
Content: Welcome back to Ascot on the fifth bright, warm morning in a row at this year's Royal meeting, on a day when the biggest crowd of the week might just witness a moment of racing history in the afternoon's feature event, the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (3.40pm).
Japan has become one of global racing's powerhouses over the last quarter of a century, winning major races on all continents and often bringing plenty of travelling fans along for the ride. Their record at Royal Ascot, however, and in fact, at Ascot full stop, is a tale of woe, with the occasional near-miss along the way.
Agnes World, the first Japanese-trained runner at the meeting, finished second, beaten just over a length, in what was then the Group Two King's Stand Stakes, when he was giving weight to his 22 rivals (and in his next race, won the Group One July Cup, the summer sprinting championship). One of his stable companions finished 22nd in the same race, and since then, only one of 10 runners from Japan has even reached the first five (Shahryar, in the 2022 Prince Of Wales's Stakes).
In Noriyuki Hori's Satono Reve, though, the country has one of its strongest contenders for years, and riding legend Joao Moreira has flown in to take the reins. The six-year-old has form that puts him within a length or two of Ka Ying Rising, the top-rated sprinter in global racing, and has been given plenty of time to get used to his new surroundings having arrived in Newmarket in early May.
I think he could be the horse to finally break Japan's duck here, and the market seems to agree as he has been backed from 9-2 to 5-2 favourite this morning. Inisherin, last year's winner of the Commonwealth Cup here, is next in on 9-2, and in a truly international field, two French-trained runners, Lazzat and Topgear, are next in at 5-1 and 6-1 respectively.
The Jersey Stakes (4.20pm), for three-year-olds over seven furlongs, and the Hardwicke Stakes, over a mile-and-a-half and a race that has often been a stepping stone to the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes here in July, are the main supporting races on today's card, along with the ever-popular Wokingham Handicap at 5pm.
The going remains good-to-firm all over after further watering last night, and temperatures are expected to climb towards 30C as the afternoon goes on, which should ensure that the track is bursting at the seams by the time the royal procession makes its way down the track just before 2pm. The attendance has been up on every day of the meeting so far – it was an 8% jump on Friday – and there is every chance the course will complete a full house today, for the second year in a row.
John & Thady Gosden are tied at five apiece in the race to be top trainer, Oisin Murphy is just two wins behind Ryan Moore after taking the last race here on Friday and you can follow all the action and slings and arrows of outrageous fortune as the 2025 Royal meeting draws to a close right here on the Guardian's live blog.