Royal Ascot Day 4: Top Irish horses to watch

Friday marks Day four of Royal Ascot and we have another extraordinary seven-race card, which features two Group 1 races. The Coronation Stakes is arguably the highlight and there are three Irish representatives amongst the 11-runner field.

We’ve picked out three Irish raiders that should be making their presence felt across the day’s action and they include a Willie Mullins runner that’s well worth keeping an eye on.

Midnite Betting Offer

Babouche - Royal Ascot 3.05

Ger Lyons recently lost his former stable jockey Colin Keane to Juddmonte but the pair will be reunited when BABOUCHE lines up in this one. She was a very talented performer at two and the early signs suggest she’s ready to fulfill that potential this year.

Her record of four wins from six starts is exceptional and she immediately announced herself as a filly to watch when winning by five lengths on debut at Cork. Babouche followed that up with victory over subsequent Classic winner Camille Pissarro in Group 3 company.

Claiming a first Group 1 success in the Phoenix Stakes back in August, she got the better of Whistlejacket that day, and he’s in opposition once again here. Lyons’ filly won well at Naas last time out and has to go under consideration here.

Ethical Diamond - Ascot 3.40

Willie Mullins is the dominant force in National Hunt racing on both sides of the Irish Sea and his record at Royal Ascot in recent years has been very solid too. Every Mullins runner draws attention and ETHICAL DIAMOND will likely be a popular choice with the punters.

He finished fourth in this race last year, losing a couple of places just before the line. The son of Awtaad will need to settle better this time around but will surely have a good chance if doing so. Ethical Diamond remains lightly raced in this sphere and a 2lb higher mark is probably manageable with that in mind.

Mullins’ five-year-old was an easy winner of a two-mile maiden hurdle at Punchestown in February and that form has worked out well. Going on to finish fourth in the County Hurdle, if he can produce that level of form on the Flat he’s entitled to make the frame.

Exactly - Ascot 4.20

Aidan O’Brien has only won this race once in the last 10 years, which is a poor tally by his own exceptional standards. He has two chances of improving his record with victory this time around and EXACTLY is the one to follow.

This daughter of Frankel was an impressive winner of a Group 3 at Leopardstown in October, where she made all the running, and her rivals couldn’t get anywhere near her. It was a decent enough effort when second on seasonal debut but it was obvious that she needed the run.

O’Brien’s filly was fourth behind Zarigana in a messy renewal of the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches and she was badly hampered. That severely affected her momentum as Ryan Moore had to stop riding. With some better luck in running here, it’ll be interesting to see how close she can get to Zarigana this time around.