The final race of what is a fascinating opening day of Royal Ascot 2024 is the £110,000 Copper Horse Handicap over one mile, six furlongs.

We have a maximum field of 16 runners for this race, one which has only been on the calendar since 2016.

In four years of this race, we do have some trends to go on. Two winners were 3/1 and even-money favourites, while the other pair were 16/1 and 33/1. The biggest-priced winner was the only one without strong recent form and was also the lowest-rated at 95, the others winning off 99, 99 and 101.

In a tight handicap, all of this year’s runners are rated 96 to 105. We’re not too bothered about prices but we are concerned about good recent form which, if being brutal, rules out Drawn To Dream, Lucander and Lmay although the latter has a big race in her off this rating.

Given that three of the four winners of this race so far were from the upper end of the handicap, those at the top were given some priority especially on fast going.

We favoured a combination of a placed finish last time at their then-handicap mark or better, along with being in the top half of the betting. That, with the addition of a couple of fascinating contenders from jumps yards, leaves us with these six runners: 

Main Contenders

A Piece Of Heaven 

Joseph O’Brien’s runner has won two flat handicaps in a row and so is just the sort of horse needed for this race.

He’s on the way up and won very well last time, but he has been shunted up 7lbs for the win which won’t be easy to cope with against other well handicapped rivals.

Belloccio 

A good chunk of the money has been coming for this runner, another Willie Mullins contender this time ridden by title-chasing William Buick.

We all know what Willie Mullins can do and it remains possible that he has been able to improve this horse by some way, making him well handicapped.

The truth is however that we’ll not know until the race is run. What we do know is that former trainer David Menuisier is no mug and he managed to get Belloccio to a mark of 108. He is at 105 now, but really how much further can this horse go? At around 7/2 he can’t be described as a value bet.

Fox Journey 

William Buick rode this horse for Sir Michael Stoute when he was third in the Melrose Handicap last summer. Buick is now abord the Willie Mullins horse here, despite the fact Ryan Moore is a familiar booking for that team.

Moore is instead riding this horse, Fox Journey and that could prove to be interesting. Returning as a four-year-old 32 days ago, the grey Roaring Lion colt simply cruised on home to win a Newmarket handicap by some 11 lengths and that’s a very rare feat.

He has gone up 9lbs in the weights for that, but in truth that is nowhere near what is needed to stop him. That was a strong-travelling, ultimately bloodless win and he can get right to Group quality now. The extra two furlongs are in his favour and he looks a horse that will take a lot of stopping under a top jockey.

Intinso 

Hollie Doyle is put up on John & Thady Gosden’s gelding for her retainer and she has a big chance.

Intinso is bang in form and remains very consistent, though some improvement is needed now in order to land a race like this.

Maxi King 

Fourth to Middle Earth in Group company last time, Maxi King obviously has talent. The downsides are whether first of all he has shown the handicapper too much, and secondly whether he prefers much softer ground which seems likely.

My Mate Mozzie 

A hurdler rated 150 until recently, My Mate Mozzie is surely the subject of a plan by Gavin Cromwell but his most recent flat form suggests a horse of consistency, not necessarily one on a massive upward curve.

Summary

A highly competitive race and one in which there are various form lines and metrics to attempt to bring together.

Willie Mullins’ Belloccio could honestly be another handicap blot, but as usual there’s no real proof of it so you’d be taking a big risk at the advertised prices.

Intinso is also very interesting, but given the way he won last time out it seems that Sir Michael Stoute’s FOX JOURNEY is extremely well handicapped and in theory should take a lot of beating off this weight. Ryan Moore is on board for one of his old allies.