In The Money Telegraph
Thursday, June 18, 2026 · Royal Ascot Day 3 · Gold Cup Day · By ITM Staff
Gold Cup Day is here — the great staying showpiece headlines a loaded Thursday. But first, a Wednesday that belonged to a champion and to Ballydoyle.
Day 2: Ombudsman’s Statement, O’Brien on 99
Wednesday belonged to Ombudsman. The Gosden-trained favourite romped to a four-length defence of his Prince of Wales’s crown under William Buick, with Minnie Hauk beating Arc winner Daryz for second — Ombudsman becoming the first horse in more than 30 years to win consecutive runnings of the race, and booking a Breeders’ Cup Turf berth in the process.
Aidan O’Brien moved to within one of a century of Royal Ascot winners, as Victorious flew home under Ryan Moore in the Queen Mary for his 99th and Limestone edged the Queen’s Vase for a fourth straight win. Blue Bolt took the Duke of Cambridge for the fillies and mares. The handicaps delivered a first Royal Ascot winner for trainer James Owen and jockey Harry Davies via Rogue Diplomat in the Royal Hunt Cup, and a 33/1 shock from King Of Cloughan in the Windsor Castle.
And the Day 2 lock landed: Alobayyah, the filly nearly the whole room agreed on, won the Kensington Palace. Add Ombudsman, Limestone and a clutch of placers, and it was a banner Wednesday.
Watch: PTF & Michael Adolphson Preview Gold Cup Day
From the Brigadier Gerard Garden, a stone’s throw from the Royal Enclosure, PTF and international racing expert Michael Adolphson go through a loaded Thursday card built around the Gold Cup — the meeting’s great two-and-a-half-mile staying showpiece, and a race woven into literary history through the 1904 running in Joyce’s Ulysses. Adolphson sides with the favourite Scandinavia up top and digs out big-priced each-way angles across the Chesham, the Ribblesdale and the Buckingham Palace cavalry charge.
▶ Watch the Gold Cup Day preview on the ITM YouTube channel →
ITM at Royal Ascot
Alex Sausville’s Day 3 Card
Alex Sausville goes through all seven Gold Cup Day races, taking a price swing in the Gold Cup itself with Carmers against the market leaders Scandinavia and Trawlerman, and opposing the favourite in the Hampton Court with Glacius.
His card: Revels (Chesham), Into The Light (King George V), Gilded Prize (Ribblesdale), Carmers (Gold Cup), Organise (Britannia), Glacius (Hampton Court) and The Wizard Of Eye (Buckingham Palace).
ITM at Royal Ascot
Steven Bonnick’s Day 3 Closer Look
Steven Bonnick’s race-by-race analysis runs through every Gold Cup Day contest, with the ratings, sectionals and draw angles on each. In the Gold Cup, he weighs whether the young pretender Scandinavia can prove different class to the proven stayer Trawlerman; and in the Chesham he’s drawn to Nola Soul, whose debut form was franked when the horse he beat home, King Of Cloughan, landed Wednesday’s Windsor Castle.
ITM Plus
Rob Dove’s Gold Cup Day Picks
Rob Dove — one of the top ten pro punters in the UK today — is back with his Day 3 selections, including his read on the Gold Cup, exclusively on ITM Plus.
Worth a Read
Richard Farquhar’s Royal Ascot Musings
Our friend Richard Farquhar is posting daily musings all through Royal Ascot — sharp, contrarian race-reading with the kind of storytelling that makes you wish you were in the grandstand beside him, plus a Tote placepot perm every day. His each-way dart on 66/1 runner-up Moonrise in Wednesday’s Windsor Castle was the latest to hit the frame. It’s free to subscribe — and well worth it.
More all week: daily video previews on the ITM YouTube channel, and premium tips on ITM Plus.
