One way of finding an edge in the market is using breeding trends.
Spotting the patterns and traits a sire passes on to their stock can prove a profitable approach as it's one of the most underused methods of finding winners.
The simplest way of using this method is to first list which sires returned a good record with their runners at Ascot.
Top Five Ascot Sires
Leading Flat sires at Ascot (since 2022)
Sire | W-R | £1 | A/E | 5f-6f | 7f-1m | 10f-12f | 14f+ |
Frankel | 15-126 | -27 | 0.84 | 0-6 | 5-40 | 6-54 | 4-26 |
Wootton Bassett | 15-73 | -11 | 1.42 | 4-22 | 7-32 | 3-16 | 1-3 |
Kingman | 14-151 | -52 | 0.87 | 0-24 | 11-101 | 3-22 | 0-4 |
Lope De Vega | 13-113 | -11 | 0.90 | 2-14 | 5-52 | 4-36 | 2-11 |
Dark Angel | 12-127 | +87 | 1.20 | 7-68 | 5-55 | 0-4 | 0-0 |
Sea The Stars | 12-117 | -15 | 0.76 | 1-3 | 4-38 | 5-57 | 2-19 |
The favoured distance for a sire’s runners at all meetings at Ascot can be seen in the above leaderboard, although some have more individual trends for the Royal meeting:
Frankel
Royal Ascot record - best progeny conditions:
Good and good to firm: 15-118 +£37
(Good to soft to heavy: 2-25 -£10)
4-5yo’s: 10-49 +£90
Other ages: 7-94 -£63
Kingman
Royal Ascot record - best conditions:
3yo’s: 7-53 +£11 Other ages: 3-64 -£53
Dark Angel
Royal Ascot record - best conditions:
Jubilee Stakes: 3-15 +£93
Avoid juvenile races 1-46
Sea The Stars
Royal Ascot record - best conditions:
Good or softer: 8-41 +£21
Good to firm: 7-89 -£19
3-4yo’s: 12-94 +£30
Other ages: 3-36 -£28
2026's Big-Race Sires
Group wins in 2026
Sire | W-R | £1 | BFSP | A/E |
Frankel | 7-33 | -9 | -7 | 0.95 |
No Nay Never | 4-10 | +36 | +65 | 1.51 |
Dubawi | 3-16 | +18 | +38 | 1.10 |
Sea The Stars | 3-12 | -2 | -1 | 1.07 |
Woottoon Bassett | 3-23 | -25 | -25 | 0.59 |
Night Of Thunder | 3-24 | -15 | -14 | 0.84 |
Starspangledbanner | 3-17 | +4 | +14 | 1.18 |
Sioux Nation | 2-10 | -4 | -4 | 1.23 |
Havana Grey | 2-12 | +8 | +14 | 1.23 |
Dark Angel | 2-5 | +9 | +10 | 4.26 |
No Nay Never catches the eye from above, and has so far in 2026 produced the likes of True Love (twice), Great Barrier Reef and Celestial Orbit to Group wins. His 5yo son, Lake Forest, has already gone close at Royal Ascot and could make it third time lucky.
Ascot, good to firm (all meetings since 2022)
No Nay Never - 4/1 or shorter 9-16 (+£14)
As for a sire to note should the ground turn soft, then Wootton Bassett’s runners at Ascot on good to soft or softer since 2022 were 5-17 (+£7)
As for mixing sires with other criteria such as trainers, then the following combos are worth looking out for across the five days.
Sire/trainer combos - All tracks - Since 2024
Wootton Bassett/A O’ Brien: 79-327 (+£15) A/E 1.02
Charlie Appleby/Lope De Vega: 17-48 (+£11) A/E 1.04
Dubawi/Charlie Appleby (good/good to firm only): 30-96 (+£25) A/E 1.19
New Bay/R Beckett: 18-64 (+£12) A/E 1.18
Kodiac/R Hannon: 11-60 (+£63) A/E 1.24
Dark Angel/K Burke: 21-113 (+£5) A/E 1.18