Cork Racecourse is gearing up for a quality card on Friday 13th June 2025 as the Darley Munster Oaks at Cork has attracted its biggest ever field of 13 runners and Breeders’ Cup winner Magnum Force will line up in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Midsummer Sprint Stakes on an action-packed card.

Among the 13 runners in the Darley Munster Oaks is last season’s Irish Oaks fourth-place finisher Elizabeth Jane with Dermot Weld and Chris Hayes seeking back to back renewals of the Group 3 contest having won the race last year with Sumiha. 

The course and distance winner Bubble Gum is another intriguing inclusion among the declarations for Friday’s feature race. The Paddy Twomey-trained four-year-old landed the spoils in the Noblesse Stakes at Cork in April and returns in the famous colours of Australian Bloodstock, the owners of 2014 Melbourne Cup winner Protectionist. Twomey, who had previously won the 2022 and 2023 edition of the Darley Munster Oaks with Rosscarbery, has also booked Colin Keane to ride his other runner Magical Hope in the €60,000 contest. 

Elizabeth Jane, Bubble Gum and Magical Hope all hold Group 1 entries with Weld’s charge having the Irish St Leger later this year as an option while the Twomey pair are entered in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes later this month. 

Aidan O’Brien will saddle two runners in the Darley Munster Oaks and both Butterfly Wings and Medici Venus hold an engagement in next month’s Irish Oaks. 

Joseph O’Brien launches a three-pronged attack on the race he has yet to win as a trainer but won as a jockey on Venus De Milo in 2014, the first year the race became known as the Munster Oaks. 

O’Brien will saddle Lemsairbat, Soft Winds and Uluru, while Jessica Harrington has declared Satin and Sea The Boss. The Willie McCreery-trained Enfranchise will hope to go one better having finished second on both starts this term, while the progressive Gotomylovely will represent Fozzy Stack while wearing the distinctive all white silks of M V Magnier and Paul Shanahan. 

The other course and distance winner in the fascinating line-up is Jack Davison’s Ameerat Jumaira for owner Isa Bin Haider. Ameerat Jumaira was second to Bubble Gum in the Noblesse Stakes here back in April and the five-year-old previously won at Cork two seasons ago. 

Magnum Force, who opened his account at Cork last summer, will return to the track for his second start of the season having won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint last November. The talented three-year-old will face eight rivals including the Andy Slattery-trained Powerful Nation who was ahead of Magnum Force at Naas last month and the Johnny Murtagh-trained Songhai, who was third in the Polonia Stakes at Cork last month. 

The seven race card at Cork will get underway at 4.52pm and the second race at 5.25pm is the Mallow Handicap worth €100,000. Cork specialist Hightimeyouwon comes into the race on a hat-trick having racked up wins at Dundalk and Cork most recently and the nine-year-old has graced the winners enclosure in Mallow on three separate occasions already. Colin Keane will ride the Juddmonte owned Storm Piece, a winner at Gowran Park last month for Ger Lyons, as Keane looks to land a big race success in his first week as retained rider to the owner. 

Live coverage of the meeting will be on TG4 from 5.15pm.