‘Car park’ no bad place to be on Ascot round course

THE draw is always a contentious issue at Royal Ascot. It makes me nervous as hell having a bet on the straight course in particular, and you must relate to that.

Once the taps are turned on there is that dreaded fear of a ‘golden highway’ developing, whether it be high or low. And, as we know, jockeys can create a draw bias at Ascot even when none exists. It’s one big lotter y.

They can change like the wind. What appears to be a favourable draw one day goes out of the window the next. And to coin a cricketing term, following the ball can prove costly.

Thankfully we have a saviour in the shape of the round course, where the goalposts never move. And yet still some professionals call this one wrong, guilty of getting the draw upside down.

Every year we hear some trainers bemoaning high draws when they should be counting their lucky stars. High is good, low is bad.

A low number is fine and dandy if intending to dominate from the front – and good luck with that. Attempting to make all is mission impossible at the best of times at this meeting. And those from low numbers unwilling to race close to the pace resign themselves to becoming a hostage to good fortune in challenging from behind. That far rail is rarely much fun.

Don’t just take my word for it. Statistics never lie. In Friday’s 1m4f Duke of Edinburgh Handicap, not one of the last ten winners broke from a stall lower than ten and four were drawn in boxes from 19 to 21. In the King George V Handicap over the same course and distance on Thursday, eight of the last ten winners were drawn in double digits, including stalls 16, 17, 20 and 22. Out in the ‘car park’ is a good place to be.

William Buick needs no refresher course. He hadn’t long been in the job with John Gosden when having the Royal Ascot of his life in 2012. It helped riding horses prepared to perfection by a genius, but it was a week when Buick came of age.

It may have been a complete coincidence that his three winners on the round course challenged wide on the track, but I doubt that very much. Gosden was no doubt involved in the cunning preconceived plan, but it still needed to be orchestrated. They knew.