Royal Ascot, Final Day

There are six meetings taking place this afternoon with all of the fixtures on the level.  The action comes from Royal Ascot, Ayr, Haydock, Lingfield, Newmarket and Redcar.  It is the final day of the Royal meeting today and it has been a fantastic week - the big race today is the Group One Diamond Jubilee Stakes at 4.20pm.  It is a nineteen runner sprint over 6 furlongs and has £600,000 up for grabs, but the race that I really like today is the Queen Alexandra Stakes run over almost 2m6f - there are a few future jumpers among the field and it will be interesting to see if Thomas Hobson, who was a winner at the meeting is turned out again, especially as Ryan Moore has been claimed by Aidan O'Brien for US Army Ranger.

What a great name for yesterday's winner of the Albany Stakes; Different League proved up to the task when beating off favourite Alpha Centauri.  She was bought by her Irish owners for just €8,000 and they could not sell her on...I bet they are pleased now and should have little trouble moving her on for considerably more after this Group 3 success should they choose to.

How good is Caravaggio?  He produced an excellent performance to land the Commonwealth Cup over six furlongs yesterday after giving a pair of very good Godolphin horses first run and still picking them up in the closing stages.  This looks like top class form and he is clearly the best sprinter around, although I would love to see runner-up Harry Angel dropped back to five furlongs.  O'Brien followed up this success with another superstar in Winter who has now won two 1,000 Guineas and a Coronation Stakes - what a filly!

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I am not a rugby man as my three readers will tell you, but I will be tuning in to Sky Sports at 8.35am to see the British Lions take on New Zealand.  The Lions have been to New Zealand twelve times and have won only once.  New Zealand are a best priced 2/7 while the Lions are 7/2 - I think I had better just watch!

David and MCP went to see the England versus South Africa T20 match at Taunton yesterday - he must be a jinx as England managed to lose by 3 runs.  Jason Roy was given out for deliberately stopping a ball from hitting the stumps and that proved to be the turning point in the match.

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What time does Sean Connery go to Wimbledon?  Tennish!  Have a great weekend...

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