With five days of top-class horse racing and 35 races, there is a lot to take in for punters – so we thought we’d help by looking at the most likely Royal Ascot bankers 2025, based on the betting markets.
Royal Ascot Bankers 2025 Headed By Irish Guineas Winner Field Of Gold
When looking at the ante-post markets, the Royal Ascot bankers tell us there are around six horses priced 2/1 or less.
Meaning these runners are going to be a lot of punter’s short-lists over the week.
It’s also no shock that three of these so-called bankers are Aidan O’Brien Royal Ascot runners.
We take a look at these bigger fancies in more detail below – plus what many are calling the ‘super Royal Ascot banker for 2025’ – the John and Thady Gosden-trained Field Of Gold.
When Is Royal Ascot 2025? 🎩🍾
📅Date: Tues 17th – Sat 21st June 2025
⌚Times: First race 2:30pm, Last race 6:10pm
🏇Racecourse: Ascot
💷Purse: £10.5m
📺 TV: ITV Racing/SkySports
You can also see the full 2025 Royal Ascot dates, schedule and race card times here.
Field Of Gold (St James’s Palace Stakes, Tues 17th June)
This John Gosden-trained horse has had a lot written about him his season – mainly due to the ride he got by Kieran Shoemark in the English 2000 Guineas.
That ride ultimately cost Shoemark his job, with many suggesting a better steering job that day would have seen him win.
These people were proved right in Field Of Gold’s next race when bolting up in the Irish 2000 Guineas under new rider Colin Keane.
As a result, he’s expected to be one of the shortest-priced runners at the meeting and is many people’s idea of the best Royal Ascot banker 2025.
He runs in the St James’s Palace Stakes on day one (Tuesday), which is a race the Gosden team have won three times.
While one of these wins for Gosden was with Field Of Gold’s sire Kingman in 2015. Can he follow in his father’s footsteps?
Zelaina (Queen Mary Stakes, Weds 18th June)
Has only raced once but this speedy 2 year-old sprinter shot to the head of the Queen Mary Stakes market after a facile win on debut at Nottingham.
She bolted up by 2 3/4 lengths that day with the €550,000 Godolphin purchase Secret Oath back in second.
Trainer Karl Burke has won two of the last three runnings of this 2 year-old race.
And he recently told the Racing Post “She’s very fast and we can go there with a bit of confidence.”
Los Angeles (Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, Weds 18th June)
Winner of the Irish Derby in 2024, this is one of the big Aidan O’Brien Royal Ascot runners for 2025.
Now aged 4, Los Angeles was also third in last season’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and has returned this season better than ever.
He’s won both starts in 2025 at the Curragh, with the most recent a gutsy win over Anmaat in the Tattersalls Gold Cup.
O’Brien will be looking for his sixth win in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes – having also won the prize last year with Auguste Rodin.
Heading into the meeting, the Aidan O’Brien Royal Ascot winners stand at 91, but Los Angeles will be a big player to add to that number.
Illinois (Ascot Gold Cup, Thurs 19th June)
Aidan O’Brien has won the Ascot Gold Cup nine times and there is a big chance he’ll make that ten in 2025.
That is because Illinois is the next of the Royal Ascot bankers 2025 that punters are sure to latch onto.
This 4 year-old stayer is also already a Royal Ascot winner – having landed the Queen’s Vase over 1m6f at the meeting last season.
He’s got big boots to fill with high-class O’Brien horses Yeats and Kyprios winning the Gold Cup six times between them.
However, in a race that doesn’t look as strong as previous seasons, Illinois certainly has a chance to carry on the O’Brien good record in the Ladies’ Day feature.
Zarigana (Coronation Stakes, Fri 20th June)
The final Royal Ascot banker 2025 for many will be this year’s controversial French 1000 Guineas winner Zarigana.
She finished a neck second in that Longchamp race. However, was awarded the race after the Basher Watts-owned She’s Perfect was deemed to have caused interference.
This is a race the French runners have done will in recently too.
They’ve won four runnings since 2011, with the most recent Watch Me in 2019 for Zarigana’s trainer Francis-Henri Graffard.
Shadow Of Light (Commonwealth Cup, Fri 20th June)
The final of our 2025 Royal Ascot bankers is Godolphin’s Shadow Of Light.
This Lope De Vega colt is trained by Charlie Appleby and was last seen running an excellent third in the English 2000 Guineas.
That race came over a mile and even though he just about got the trip, many are saying this drop back to 6f will make him very hard to beat.
He’s got plenty of pace to cope with the lesser trip having won the Middle Park Stakes over 6f at Newmarket last season.
Plus, impressed in landing the Dewhurst Stakes in the middle of October last term (watch below).
He’ll head to the Commonwealth Cup as a two-time Group One winner and many feel he’ll be making that three.
