King George Day

It is a busy day with seven meetings taking place this afternoon, but can you believe it?  Not one of them is over jumps!  The action comes from Chester, Lingfield, Newcastle, Newmarket, Salisbury and York.  The big race of the day is the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes from Ascot at 3.35pm.  It is a Group One contest over 1m4f with over £500,000 in prize money.  The John Gosden trained filly Enable has been all the rage in the markets in the lead-up to the race and the English and Irish Oaks heroine looks to be the one they all have to beat in receipt of her age and sex allowance.  Frankie Dettori is in the saddle and it would be great to seem him back with a big winner following persistent niggles with his injured shoulder.

I see the equine welfare team were scanning the horses as they arrived at Ascot racecourse yesterday in the wake of the wrong horse lining-up and winning at Yarmouth earlier in the week.  Surely this is a little bit like trying to shut the stable door after the horse has bolted?  The trainer still has to saddle the right horse mind you!  I still find it amazing that the owners did not recognise their own horse.

It is owner Terry Neill's birthday and he had some great horses at Pond House down the years, most notable of which was Gloria Victis...one of the best I have ever seen.  Many happy returns Terry, we hope you have a great day.

I keep saying that we need to shorten the time between off-times at the racecourses although it seems that the message has not reached everybody.  At Thirsk yesterday there was 35 minutes between each race and even Racing Post reporter Andrew Dietz said that the card dragged on.

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There was a good day for England's cricketers yesterday and they need to quickly bowl out the South Africans this morning and enforce the follow-on.  Toby Roland-Jones bowled very well in his first test match appearance, claiming four wickets.  The pitch looks uneven and there has to be a result unless the rain takes over.

I can't believe that anyone would pay £196 million for a footballer although it looks like Paris Saint-Germain are going to fork out that sum for Neymar.  Neymar says that he wants to leave Barcelona and will not be travelling back to Spain with the rest of the team.

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Thought for the day.  Cheat on your taxes and you will end up in one of two places...jail or Parliament (and I'm not sure which is worse!).  Have a nice weekend.

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