CALM BEFORE THE STORM: No Irish racing on Monday but all eyes are now on the feast of Royal Ascot. The five day meeting gets underway tomorrow on ground that is currently good to soft.


A chance to take a deep breath ahead of the action at Royal Ascot this week.

One of Ireland’s best hopes on the opening day will lie with the Aidan O’Brien trained War Envoy in the Coventry Stakes over six furlongs at 3.05pm.

O’Brien has won the race twice in the last three years and I can hardly forget the success of War Command last year.

At 20/1 he gave SHAMROCK his biggest tipping success of the whole year when streaking to a six length success. He was the lesser fancied of the stables three runners last year and subsequently went on to win the Dubai Dewhurst Stakes (Group 1) at Newmarket.

O’Brien will just rely on the one runner this year, War Envoy and, as the name suggests, he’s another son of War Front.

He started odds-on and made a winning debut at Naas but then proved a little disappointing (at odds of 8/15) when returning to the course for a Listed race and only finishing third to the Richard Hannon trained Kool Kompany who also takes his chance in the Coventry tomorrow.

After the Naas race O’Brien said: “I might have left him a bit short. We were looking at Ascot on the way here and he got a bit tired. He’ll go for the Coventry.”

SHAMROCK’S BETS:
NONE TODAY