Day four of Royal Ascot 2026 and it’s going to be a scorcher, with peak temperatures of up to 28C forecast for this afternoon. A day for sunscreen, shades and plenty of hydration breaks between races, and also a chance for the punters to press home the advantage after the feature events on the first three days were won by a heavily-backed favourite.

Scandinavia (11-8), in yesterday’s Gold Cup, followed up the victories of Bow Echo (5-6) and Ombudsman (11-10) on Tuesday and Wednesday, and there are three short-priced favourites in the first four races today that multiply out to an 8-1 treble.

The punters will look to Aidan O’Brien’s Sun Goddess (5-4) to get them off to a storming start in the Albany Stakes at 2.30, and move on to Venetian Sun (6-4) in the Commonwealth Cup at 3.05, before getting stuck into Precise (4-6) in the Coronation Stakes.

The going at Ascot remains good-to-firm after another 5mm of water was applied overnight, and an interesting point from the GoingStick readings is that there is an increasing disparity between the two sides of the track on the straight course.

The latest reading on the stands’ side – where the high-numbered stalls have been dominant in most of the straight-track races this week – is 8.3, while the far side is 8.9. Given that the stands’ rail has already held sway on the first three days, it is entirely possible that most or all of the runners will come down the near rail this afternoon. The 25-runner Albany will give an early indication.

Picks for the seven races on today’s card are here, and you can follow all the action as it happens here on the blog from early to late.