Nick Luck’s Royal Ascot blog: Gorgeous looks a Pretty good bet in Coronation

Two Group 1s headline the card at Royal Ascot on Friday and having been amongst the winners already, including one at 22/1, Nick’s Luck’s tips aren’t to be missed!

Read on for his selections for day four.

Royal Ascot

FLOTUS gets a narrow verdict over Cachet to win the Albany Stakes (2.30pm) at 3/1. Neither will mind the rain if it comes in significant quantities, but the sheer power and closing splits with which Flotus finished off a steadily run race at Goodwood convinces me that we were only scratching the surface. Frankie Dettori taking over is a big positive too. In addition to Cachet, Eve Lodge appeals as one that could run really well at bigger odds.

YIBIR can win the King Edward VII Stakes (3.05pm) at 6/1. He’s pretty closely matched with Alenquer on their Sandown form (Adayar split the pair) but looks as though a stiffer test will suit him better, and he’s a much bigger price. The yard is so strong in this division this year, and the gelding operation might well have helped given that he hung when under pressure on his last two starts. Tasman Bay continues to make steady progress and can run well.

SUPREMACY is risky, but I’m prepared to take my chances at 7/1 in the Commonwealth Cup (3.40pm). His form to this point is head and shoulders above these, and he would be odds-on if he hadn’t flopped badly on his comeback. That said, he may have needed the run (he’s a massive bull of a horse who ran poorly on his seasonal debut at two) and was somewhat impeded into the bargain. He now has blinkers, will probably make a bee line to race up the rail and could just blow these away.

PRETTY GORGEOUS is another who can bounce back in the Coronation Stakes (4.20pm). She was a superb two-year-old, who relished a little cut in the ground, and I didn’t think her belated comeback in the Irish Guineas was too bad when poorly positioned and hampered on very bad ground. I’d be confident she can take a big step forward here at 9/2 with Dettori booked.

GLESGA GIRL is where the pin has landed in an impossible looking Sandringham (5.00pm). Hugo Palmer has had a couple of horses run outstandingly well in defeat this week, and this filly exploded to a new level off a winter break at Wolverhampton last time. A little rain won’t go amiss back on turf, while the step up to a mile looks sure to suit at 11/1.

SAM COOKE makes a fair bit of appeal at 12/1 in the Duke Of Edinburgh (5.35pm). He arguably ran the best race of his life at this track on similar ground over this trip last summer, and he hasn’t really had the rub of the green since. I thought he ran respectably on his seasonal debut at York considering he was way too keen and saw too much of the front too soon. Hopefully that run will have taken the freshness out of him: if so, he has a big shout off this mark.

EQUALITY makes some appeal in the Palace Of Holyroodhouse (6.10pm) at 6/1. In truth, it’s quite hard to get a handle on his Wolverhampton form, but he smashed up a fairly solid mid-70s horse by a gearing-down nine lengths, which makes me think 88 is a pretty lenient mark. He’s by a Royal Ascot sprint winner out of a mare who was stakes class and who appreciated soft ground, so it may be that rain is not an issue.

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