Royal Ascot Tix Picks 2025, Day 3

June 19, 2025
Matt Bisogno

This week, as part of our Royal Ascot content, I'm making a suggested placepot permutation each day.

It started well on Tuesday: although the perm only caught 2% of the dividend, that was enough to return £58.11 from a £24.96 stake, including 5% Tix bonus. That's a profit of £33.15.

It got better yesterday: a £22.68 stake returned £146.47 from 13% of the dividend. That's two four-figure dividends we've managed to get a slice of, which is very, very hard using traditional 'caveman' perms. This is the beauty of ABCX and Tix!

With £47.64 staked and £204.58 returned, for a profit of £156.94, we'll be winning better than £100 from Tix and placepots on the week (no Tix Picks on Saturday).

Gold Cup day, Thursday, looks super tricky. But remember, there's another prize giveaway today - see below.

I'll be using the ABCX approach, outlined here, and some online software called Tix which I built in conjunction with Nige, the guy who coded most of the original geegeez.co.uk racecards and form tools. [It is excellent software, though I say so myself]

Basically, I'm creating a number of different placepot bets based around how strongly I fancy various horses; and I'm weighting my stakes accordingly.

When I say 'I', I mean Tix is doing all of that; I'm just picking horses and choosing whether they're A (strongest fancy), B (fair chance) or C (dark horse/lively outsider). X are the horses I'm discarding from contention.

Tix Bonus

Every winning ticket placed through Tix benefits from a 5% bonus return. Win £100? You'll get £105. Win £500? Enjoy an extra £25. Just for placing your bets through Tix.

Prizes to be won

And, because it's Royal Ascot week, we've got some Tix prizes to give away.

Tuesday to Friday / Saturday

For the first four days of the Royal meeting, the Tix player with the highest return on investment on a single ticket will win £50.

On the final day of Royal Ascot, Saturday, the Tix player netting top ROI will win £100, credited to their tote account.

So that's £300 in prizes this week!

Congratulations to Mick C, who won £50 on Tuesday; and to Paul M, who won £50 yesterday.

What do you need?

You simply need a tote account. Get one here if you don't already have one. [You'll probably be eligible for extra bonuses when signing up, but obviously do check the T's and C's]

To day three. It's risky banking on the the favourite in the opener but, if not there, then where?

Leg 1 - Norfolk Stakes:

Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore have won the two main juvenile races so far this week and have odds-on Charles Darwin here. But odds-on Whistlejacket was off the ticket for him last year, and they've missed the board every year since Land Force was third in 2018, including with three favourites. Karl Burke's recent record in the race is excellent and, though he's not hit the heights with his juveniles this week yet, Naval Light could change that. I'm taking a bigger chance than the market suggests because I need bullets to fire elsewhere. Will be place laying Charles Darwin to cover at least a part of my stakes.

A - 3 Charles Darwin
B - 1 Afjan, 13 Naval Light
C - 5 Comical Boy, 7 First Legion, 12 London Boy, 14 Sandal's Song, 16 Wise Approach, Unnamed favourite

Leg 2 - King George V Stakes:

As Rory very well articulated in his preview of this race, low is generally unfavoured with middle to high the places to be. Only Hukum (stall 4) has won this from lower than stall 8 (of 16 and 19 runners), and Hukum went on to win two Group 1's, including the King George itself over the same course and distance! You have to be good to overcome a low post. Hoping the market has this right.

A - 5 Serious Contender, 6 Sing Us A Song, 8 Merchant

Leg 3 - Ribblesdale Stakes:

The one I wanted to be with, Garden Of Eden, is friendless this morning; that said, the market seems utterly clueless here with the top six all mainly pink on the odds grids. I'm guessing here and using plenty of ammo.

A - 1 Caspi Star, 2 Catalina Delcarpio, 4 Garden Of Eden, 9 Life Is Beautiful

Leg 4 - Gold Cup:

Eight runners so we don't need any defections! On the face of it, this is a three horse race, with old boy Trawlerman the chuck out. But he is the proven one under these conditions and the trainers are in incedible form. I have had a good bet on the French horse, Candelari, but he'll never have raced on ground this quick; and Illinois is stepping up six furlongs in trip. Not trying to be clever here, just hoping to be lucky - may place lay Illinois to cover stakes if all eight run.

A - 8 Illinois
B - 4 Trawlerman

Leg 5 - Britannia Stakes:

Possibly the toughest race of the week. We're often looking at a midfield to held up runner drawn high, and that's the direction my prayer mat is facing. Hayley gave Docklands 'a Jamie' for Harry Eustace to win this a couple of years ago, and this time Jamie rides for Harry on La Botte (the barrel, used to be a great Italian restaurant in Boscombe). His form ties in with Field Of Gold through Cosmic Year, so he's an auto A. Teroomm is an obvious A pick, too, getting a hold up ride to notch the hat-trick last time and drawn highest of all.

Shout and Fearnot will come from further back, while Raafedd and Parole d'Oro have clear form claims if not optimal draw/run style profiles. This feels like 'goodnight Vienna' territory if we've not already put the cat out (hat tip to the late great Leonard Rossiter, for all that this show hasn't aged well - the jokes, of course, were all at his expense).

A - 2 La Botte, 8 Teroomm
B - 18 Fearnot, 22 Shout, 25 Raafedd, 26 Parole d'Oro
C - 6 Afentiko, 12 Consolidation, 15 Serengeti, 28 Brave Mission, 29 Arctic Grey

Leg 6 - Hampton Court Stakes:

Crikey, when will it end? Well, here, mercifully, as the sixth of six very challenging legs. Tornado Alert looks like he's been asking for ten furlongs all season, though he's backing up quickly after the Derby; Detain brings Prix du Jockey Club placed form but has to show he acts on very quick turf. Trinity College's form ties in with Detain's and he's solid if unspectacular - the sort that wins this race - and that'll do. Throwing some C's into the mix, too, because I fear middle to high might be slightly favoured.

A - 3 Detain, 13 Tornado Alert
B - 14 Trinity College
C - 2 Arabian Force, 5 Glittering Legend, 7 High Stock, 9 Reyenzi, Unnamed favourite

Full ticket view

The truth is that we'll definitely need to be lucky to score today, and on my own tickets - as well as these I've placed below - I'll be 'squeezing the topology', moving a couple more on to A in some places and taking risky bankers in others. But I'm happy to take a wider swipe and try to limit stakes here to £25. Anyhoo...

For pennies today, stakes are £25.44.

Full disclosure: as always, even if this perm gets 'winning' tickets, there's a chance it pays less than the total stakes. We're really trying to get something interesting to happen at some point in the sequence!

The full A (green) B (yellow) C (tan) view looks like this:

And the breakdown by ticket is like this:

Remember, you need to have a placed selection in each leg on at least one ticket. That means at least four races with A picks placing.

Place your Tix bets here - and you'll be in line for a 5% bonus on winning tickets, and a chance to win £50 daily through Royal Ascot.