Royal Ascot 2025: The Three Favourites Giving Bookies Cold Sweats
With Royal Ascot 2025 just around the corner, bookmakers up and down the country are bracing themselves for a week that could either go down as a masterclass in liability management — or end in absolute financial carnage. Why? Because three horses are attracting the kind of sustained betting attention that makes even the most hardened of odds compilers shift nervously in their ergonomic chairs.
All three come to the royal meeting with top-class form, colossal popularity, and the kind of prices that make accumulator dreams fly and bookmaker balance sheets twitch. If these three land, expect champagne corks at the track… and Valium sales to spike at head offices across the betting industry.
Rosallion – The Queen Anne Stakes Banker That’s No Stranger to Ascot Glory
If you’re a bookie, you probably already see Rosallion in your sleep — and not in a good way. Currently hovering around the 11/4 mark, this colt is doing a fine job of hoovering up public support faster than a Dyson in overdrive.
In the last month alone, a hefty 39% of all bets placed on the Queen Anne Stakes via Freebetting.co.uk have gone his way. That’s not an endorsement — that’s a stampede. And it’s easy to see why. The Queen Anne is a Group 1 contest designed to kick Royal Ascot off with a bang, and Rosallion has been primed to deliver fireworks from the off.
Already a Royal Ascot winner, thanks to last year’s heroics in the St James’s Palace Stakes, Rosallion heads back to to Berkshire with a perfect track record and a clear mission. His Lockinge Stakes prep run — where he shaped well before being allowed to coast once beaten — ticked all the right boxes for a horse being wound up for a major target.
Trainer Richard Hannon hasn’t exactly played coy either. The Queen Anne has been pencilled in as the goal since spring, and everything seems to be falling into place. With Notable Speech potentially less effective on Ascot’s straight mile, Rosallion could have conditions in his favour.
Punters clearly smell a winner, and with BetTom offering up to £25 in free bets for new customers, there’s no shortage of interest in backing him to deliver once more on Tuesday.
Field Of Gold – Odds-On and On Everyone’s Bet Slip in the St James’s Palace
When it comes to horses bookmakers don’t want to win, none induce a panic quite like Field Of Gold. This is Royal Ascot, after all — where odds-on shots in Group 1s are as rare as polite traffic wardens. But here we are, and 5/6 is the best you’ll get if you fancy him to land the St James’s Palace Stakes on Tuesday.
It’s not just a case of sharp odds, either. The betting behaviour says it all. A staggering 45% of bets in the St James’s Palace market over the last 30 days have landed on Field Of Gold — a figure that would make most bookies consider relocating to a far-off island with no Wi-Fi.
Why the fuss? Well, this three-year-old has already looked like the second coming of Rock of Gibraltar this season. Only a touch of misfortune kept him from winning the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, and he didn’t hang around sulking — promptly trotting over to the Curragh and winning the Irish version by a yawning margin.
With a devastating turn of foot and a high cruising speed, Field Of Gold looks perfectly suited to the round mile at Ascot. If he finds daylight when he needs it, the others might well be running for second — and that’s exactly what layers are dreading.
He’s short, he’s fast, and he’s popular — the punting trifecta. And if you’re looking to chuck your BetTom free bet bonus at something warm, this lad’s the sort to make Tuesday either a dream or a disaster, depending which side of the betting fence you’re on.
Zarigana – The French Raider Turning Friday Into a Headache for the Layers
Just when the bookmakers thought they might catch a breather by Friday, along comes Zarigana in the Coronation Stakes, and suddenly it’s brown-trousers time all over again.
Best-priced at 7/4, the French-trained filly has quietly built a mountain of support and now accounts for 26% of all bets on the Coronation market, according to Freebetting.co.uk. Trained by Francis-Henri Graffard — who already knows how to win this race, having done it with Watch Me in 2019 — Zarigana arrives with a touch of class and a pile of momentum.
She’s only been beaten once in five career starts, and even that came with mitigating circumstances in the Prix Marcel Boussac. Since then, she has returned in sparkling form — winning the Prix de la Grotte before being awarded the French 1,000 Guineas in the stewards’ room after missing out by a nose on the track.
Suited by quick ground and a stiff mile, her smooth style and smart acceleration scream Group 1 quality. And if anyone in the betting world thought her foreign base might limit support, they’ve clearly not seen how quickly UK punters latch on to a top-class filly — especially one with proven credentials and a trainer who knows the Ascot drill.
Betting firms will be praying for a British bullet to upend her, but right now, the trend is clear: Zarigana is a growing liability, and one more win could be very costly indeed.
Bookmaker Blues and BetTom Bonuses
So, what’s the thread tying these three horses together? It’s not just their form or short prices — it’s that they’ve become the trio most likely to do serious damage to bookmakers’ bottom lines if they all oblige.
From a punting perspective, they’re the perfect storm. Talented, well-backed, and each with a narrative the betting public can get behind. And with the launch of BetTom, the UK’s newest betting site offering new customers up to £25 in free bets, there’s plenty of motivation to get involved before the real action starts.
Whether it’s a straight treble, a series of singles, or just one well-placed free bet bonus, these three horses are going to feature heavily in betting slips nationwide.
Final Word – The Treble That Could Tip the Scales
In the mad, majestic chaos that is Royal Ascot, there are always a few horses that carry the weight of public money on their backs. This year, Rosallion, Field Of Gold, and Zarigana are the ones flying the flag for favourite backers — and the ones giving traders sleepless nights and nervous twitches.
If they all win? Expect jubilant punters, weeping bookmakers, and a few busted laptops in trading rooms across the UK. If one or two falter? Well, that’s the beauty of Ascot — where nothing is guaranteed except the hats and the hangovers.
Just don’t say we didn’t warn you.
