One Horse, One Jockey And One Trainer To Follow On Day Three

The horse on Day three of Royal Ascot 2019 we believe can run a big race is the Charlie Appleby-trained Cross Counter who is Godolphin's biggest chance of landing the Gold Cup in years.

This four-year-old Gelding will have to beat Stradivarius who is the best staying horse in the division winning his last six Group races in a row, landing the million pound bonus and this race last year.

However, Cross Counter is up there in this division and the further he seems to go in distance the better he is which makes hi very appealing in this Group 1.

Last season he landed the Group 3 Gordon Stakes at Glorious Goodwood which really put him on the map as he broke the track record for that distance on the day.

From there he finished a narrow second to stablemate Old Persian in the Group 2 Great Voltigeur at the York Ebor meeting but from that day it showed he needed further.

Appleby obliged and sent him over to Australia for the Group 1 Melbourne Cup over 2 miles and he ran a stormer beating the other 23 horses to become the first British horse to win the race.

Now a stayer to be respected he started his campaign off this season in Meydan in the Group 2 Dubai Gold Cup and he landed that in style, with plenty in the tank.

The ground is due to be on the soft side come Thursday afternoon which he may handle better than a lot of the field and with the extra distance to play with he has to be feared.

With Cross Counter being our horse to follow it brings us on nicely to our jockey to follow for day three and that is James Doyle who has some serious rides on Thursday.

Obviously he has Cross Counter which we have explained how much of a chance he holds in the feature Gold Cup but he also has some others from both Godolphin and trainer William Haggas.

In the first race of the day he is on Expressionist for Charlie Appleby who won has only raced once, but got off the mark straight away over course and distance at Ascot and William Buick was riding that day and did not have to do to much to see him win. He holds a huge amount of potential and should handle the softer conditions better than most of the field.

Also in the last race of the day he holds a big chance with second favourite Sinjaari who looks a really smart prospect from the William Haggas yard and Sinjaari looks ready to step up to 1 mile 4f after finishing a smart second at Newbury last time out over shorter.

Doyle could add to his winners already at this years festival on Thursday.

A common theme from what has already been mentioned but our trainer on day three to watch closely is William Haggas who on the first day that saw his first winner at the Royal meeting and he will be looking to add to that on day three with some nice chances.

His first chance comes in the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes with Frankellina who is a daughter of Frankel and if she comes on for for her runs this season she stands a good chance of being in the frame.

In the Britannia Stakes Handicap he fields Awe who looks to have a big chance at a good price after winning last time out and he is very versatile on soft and good ground which makes him dangerous.

His final chance as already mentioned is Sinjaari and the second favourite looks a prospect from the William Haggas yard and the colt looks ready to step up to 1 mile 4f after finishing a smart second at Newbury last time out over shorter.