Psychedelic Funk can strike for astute Ger Lyons in Coventry

This may surprise you but the opening day of Royal Ascot rivals the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival in terms of a quality.

In fact, I can’t think of a raceday around the world – and I’ve been lucky enough to attend a few – which combines quality with a sense of occasion like today does. Three Group Ones, a Group Two, an £80,000 Listed and Handicap contest says it all. The quality just keeps on coming.

I’m filing the first race of the meeting, the Queen Anne Stakes, in the too difficult drawer, but I am very hopeful of picking the winner of the second race, the Coventry Stakes, despite it traditionally being one of the best two-year-old races of the year, and in a field of 19, there are only three which haven’t won before.