Flat Runner At Newbury

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with flat fixtures from Newmarket, Carlisle, Doncaster, Epsom and Newbury.  Sadly, it is another blank day if you are a fan of the jumps.  Even so, David has a runner today as Tobacco Road contests thr 1m5f handicap at Newbury at 8.05pm.  He has to shoulder top weight of 10-1 and will need to improve on his last couple of starts to figure, although he ran well three starts back when a narrow runner-up at Chelmsford City.  Oisin Murphy is in the saddle.  There are sixteen runners and it looks to be a wide-open contest.

There is a great card at Leopardstown with a £100,000 1m2f flat handicap, although Newmarket also field a good fixture with three Group races and a listed contest on their card - you don't get that very often on a Thursday afternoon.  It would be nice to see a bit of jump racing though...one of the things I dislike most about the summer is the lack of balance in the racing programme.

A concerted effort is being made at the moment to find out how we can bring the sport to the younger generations so I thought I would ask my son Lester what he thinks.  He likes a bet but he doesn't go racing...he tells me that there is too long between races and that is boring.  I see that at Lingfield and Yarmouth yesterday there was 35 minutes between all but one of their races - maybe for the first time ever, I agree with my son...just don't tell him that!

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Andy Murray was knocked out of Wimbledon yesterday at the quarter-final stage.  I did say yesterday that his opponent Sam Querry was dangerous and so it proved - he has a massive serve and closed out the five set victory by winning 11 of the final 12 games.  Meanwhile, with Novak Djockovic retiring hurt from his match, it is looking increasingly likely that this could be Roger Federer's record eighth Wimbledon championship.  Johanna Konta is the only Brit left...who would have thought that?  She plays today to become the first British lady to make the final since Viriginia Wade in 1977.  She plays Venus Williams who is 11 years her senior - even so, she looks to be coming back to form and will be a tough challenge for Jo.

I see that England cricketer Ben Stokes has a new job.  He was driving the heavy roller over the pitch at Trent Bridge before the second test match which starts tomorrow at 11am.  It is early days, but I have backed England to win the series and based on the first match I am feeling pretty confident.

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A word of advice...www.conjunctivitis.com - there's a site for sore eyes!

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