Why doesn't Ascot make more of an effort to get all the entries in earlier?

There's less than a week to go until Royal Ascot and until Wednesday afternoon there were no entries available for 60 per cent of the races. Why is that?

It's nothing new, of course, but it's always baffled me why the royal meeting does not have an entry system similar to the one adopted by the Cheltenham Festival, whereby there are regular entry stages for the races and we know the potential runners for nearly all of them a couple of weeks in advance.

It's a no-brainer when you think of it as nothing breathes interest into a big meeting more than a list of runners and a set of prices.

That's not how Ascot does it, though, and until the six-day entries for day one came through earlier on Wednesday we had the possible runners to work off for only 14 of the contests. At the same stage for Cheltenham, we'd have had nearly a week with the weights for all the handicaps.

Obviously wanting this to happen at Ascot is largely for personal reasons, but surely a steady drip of entries rather than just a few long-term ones is the way to play it as it guarantees the meeting is in the headlines on a regular basis for a lot longer.

It also, of course, allows punters to study the form, including for the handicaps, which are my bread and butter when it comes to punting.

Royal Ascot now features 12 handicapsCredit: Alex Livesey

There are 12 handicaps at Royal Ascot now, but for some time the only two we have had any idea about are the Wokingham and Royal Hunt Cup.

Punters who like to get stuck into handicaps will tell you how long it takes to put the time and effort into just one 16-runner handicap, but virtually every one of those will have that number of runners as minimum. There's just not enough time in the day to do every race justice.

I can't think of a valid reason why Ascot wouldn't make more of an effort to get in all the entries earlier. Judging by the volume of questions posed by readers for a Royal Ascot Q&A published in Saturday's paper, there is clearly a demand for information further in advance than is currently available.

Keith Melrose and I were inundated by readers wanting to know our thoughts on the handicaps, the make-up of the French challenge, what might stop some of the Willie Mullins stayers, our naps and lays of the meeting and all sorts of multiples and Lucky 15 suggestions. We obviously did our best to answer the questions as well as we could, but the entry system meant we were doing it with one hand tied behind our backs.

It's about time Ascot and the BHA tried promoting the entire meeting a little bit more.

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