One At Rasen

There is a busy day ahead with no less than six meetings taking place with flat cards from Royal Ascot, Redcar, Newmarket, Wetherby and Ayr as well as a jumps fixture from Market Rasen.  David has one runner at Market Rasen today; Ilovemints who contests the 2m½f handicap hurdle.  She won at Bangor on soft ground and does have some bits and pieces of decent form.  The ground is good but course officials are watering - let's hope that this surface can bring about a little improvement.  Quantum Of Solace looks to be the one to beat.

As you would expect, it looks like another fiercely competitive card at Royal Ascot this afternoon.  The big race of the day is the Group One Coronation Cup with over £300,000 going to the winner.  It will be interesting to see if Billesdon Brook can run up to the same mark as when successful in the 1,000 Guineas at 66/1 or whether it was just a flash in the pan?  She certainly won't be a 66/1 chance today.

What a great showman Frankie Dettori is.  He has enjoyed 60 Royal Ascot winners during his sparkling career which now includes 6 Gold Cups after the thrilling success of Stradivarius in yesterday's renewal.  He was certainly enjoying himself and he loves to milk the crowd.  I thought it was a nice touch by Ascot to present him with a saddle cloth with the number 60 on it.  Meanwhile, it looks like Sir Anthony McCoy is getting to enjoy his role on television and I have enjoyed the first few installments of his interview with Aidan O'Brien.

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I hope a few of you followed my football bets yesterday - you would have been feeling quite pleased with yourself after 14/5 chances Croatia beat Argentina 3-0.  It was a messy game, in fact Messi played terribly and were never in it.  I will be backing Nigeria today at 15/8 and Serbia at 9/5 to give me a little interest.

Rumour has it that Marcus Rashford will start for England against Panama on Sunday.  I have been saying he should be starting for a while now and it is good to see that someone has finally seen sense.  England can only get better for his promotion.

It was good to see England hand another spanking to the Australians in the 50 over cricket.  England are now 4-0 up in the series and while this may be a terrible Australian side, it is always satisfying to beat them - it's just a shame that it is not in front of their own fans back in Australia.  Come to think of it, I haven't heard much from my Australian mates lately...I can't think why!

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Talking of the Aussies...what's red and green and hops around the Outback?  Kangarhubarb!

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