Ribblesdale Stakes Tips: 11/1 Shot Can Cause Minor Shock

In a Group 2 that has thrown up plenty of high class winners over the years at Royal Ascot, there is another stacked field set to contend the Ribblesdale Stakes of 2024. A big field of fifteen will clash over middle distance in Berkshire and while a case can be made for plenty, Billy Grimshaw is keen on one at double figure odds...

The obvious place to start here is the warm favourite for Godolphin Divine Rain. She comes from an ownership that are known to target this race and Charlie Appleby's charge has proven quick ground form and plenty of speed to burn from what we have seen. Her price, however, is massively off putting as to me in a field this deep she looks at least a point too short. Perhaps she is a rocket against also-rans from Epsom here, but I'm not convinced she deserves to be so far clear and particularly with her poor draw am happy to take her on.

Kalpana is the second favourite and if we forget her loss in the Pretty Polly last time out - she was not disgraced there and could in time prove to have been beaten by a star when a long way clear of the third - her run beforehand when dismantling a handicap by ten lengths marked her out as a filly more than ready for the step up to group company. She is drawn in one, next to Divine Rain, which does put me off a touch but I can fully see the case for her and at the current prices would be with her over the favourite.

Former Oaks favourite Danielle is one of a few in here for the Gosden team and if we put a line through what she produced at Lingfield in an Oaks trial, when third tot he reopposing You Got To Me she could well bounce back in style here and reward those of a forgiving nature. The winner that day at Lingfield must also have a chance on her fine Oaks fourth when staying on well and she could be the pace angle into the race. She was one of the last off the shortlist.

Another high on my list of potential tips was Port Fairy for team Ballydoyle, as she is the type of lightly raced sort they send here with success down the years and if she can take a further step forward from her head second in the Cheshire Oaks when last seen she should be right there. The one I've come down on, however, is the horse that beat Port Fairy at Chester that day in FOREST FAIRY, who is now three points bigger in the odds grids.

I was there on the day of the Cheshire Oaks and to my eye at the track and on rewatching, Forest Fairy won that race pretty snugly. Chester is usually a fair trial for how a horse will handle Epsom, so it was a concern to see Andrew Balding's charge fluff her lines so grandly in the Oaks, but I am willing to forgive a horse a bad run in a race like that Classic if the price next time out dictates. 

She is by Waldgeist and looks sure to stay, with Ascot to my eye seemingly a track she'll relish. There are dangers aplenty that I have already mentioned and a few more to note, including Rubies Are Red and Siyola at big prices, so I'll recommend Forest Fairy each-way, but if she is back to the form she showed at Chester I would not in the slightest bit be surprised to see her run out a ready winner.