A Great Day Ahead At Ascot

The stable has three runners this afternoon at Ascot, Street Entertainer, War Singer and Matuhi.  As you would expect from the Berkshire track, there is some very good prize money up for grabs and this has led to a very competitive day's racing.  War Singer (pictured above) won last time out at Kelso and prior to that had some very good form on the flat in France - having now won over hurdles he looks like a good prospect and has crept into this handicap on 10-1.  It is a fiercely competitive race but he looks to have a chance under Tom Scudamore, who will also be aboard Matuhi in the handicap chase.  Matuhi has long threatened to win a nice race, so let's hope that he gets a bit of luck in running today.  Conor O'Farrell takes the mount aboard our other runner Street Entertainer this afternoon.

There are three other meetings taking place this afternoon, one on the flat at Doncaster and two more over sticks at Ayr and Wetherby.  Wetherby host a quality card that features the Charlie Hall Chase and there are some top names in the line-up.  All six of the runners are having their first start of the season so it will be interesting to see how they fare, however even the last one home will pick up £1340 so it is definitely worthwihile - you would have to win on the all-weather to pick up that sort of prizemoney.

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It is the final day of Michael Hills riding career at Newmarket today.  The 49 year old jockey won his first race in 1979 at Nottingham and I can still remember him riding a winner for Martin aboard a giant of a horse called Mr Gerry.  Michael came in and apologised for giving the horse a back-hander with the whip - he looked like a little boy...anyway, he has gone on to win 148 Group races and I'm sure will leave a big void in the weighing room.

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AP McCoy took a nasty tumble from Mr Watson at Wetherby yesterday afternoon on the way to the start.  The champ split his lip, needed some stitches and lost some teeth but apparently his first words to his wife were "make sure I can ride my four at Ascot tomorrow!".  These jockeys are built tough...he went to York hospital and didn't have any anaesthetic (if he did he would have been stood down by the doctors!) - I'm sure I would have done the same!  Anyway, good luck to him this afternoon.

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I will be having a sneaky little treble on the football this afternoon - you could certainly do worse to than to join me on West Brom at 3/4, Sunderland at 23/20 and Spurs at 8/15.  You heard it here first!