3 Royal Ascot Entries

Today there are five meetings taking place - four of them on the level at Newbury, Nottingham, Yarmouth and Haydock as well as a jumps card at Uttoxeter.  It will be a poignant day with the first runners from Warren Place since the passing of Sir Henry Cecil on Tuesday.  This is part of the program mapped out by the late trainer and the stable will have runners at Leopardstown, Newbury, Nottingham and Yarmouth - let's hope that there are some winners among them.  The horses are running in the name of Sir Henry's wife, Lady Cecil...it is certainly going to be emotional and I would like to wish them all the luck in the world.

Today there are five meetings taking place - four of them on the level at Newbury, Nottingham, Yarmouth and Haydock as well as a jumps card at Uttoxeter.  It will be a poignant day with the first runners from Warren Place since the passing of Sir Henry Cecil on Tuesday.  This is part of the program mapped out by the late trainer and the stable will have runners at Leopardstown, Newbury, Nottingham and Yarmouth - let's hope that there are some winners among them.  The horses are running in the name of Sir Henry's wife, Lady Cecil...it is certainly going to be emotional and I would like to wish them all the luck in the world.

Looking at the results from yesterday I see that the ground at Haydock, Beverley and Yarmouth was officially descridbed as good/firm but this was certainly not backed up by the stopwatch with every race (apart from the one where there was a power-cut!) slower than the standard time.  Some of the rain must have got into the ground.

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Entries closed for day one of the Royal Ascot meeting yesterday and David put three in the Ascot Stakes, a race the stable has a rich tradition in and a race he won himself in 2010 with Junior.  Junior features in his entries again this time round and he could be joined by Beyond and Investissement.

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Today is the 55th birthday of Martin's former stable jockey Peter Scudamore (pictured right with Tom and Martin), although I reckon he looks a lot older than that...it must have been all those years of working for Martin that aged him!  A quick story that Peter will not thank me for - I once backed a horse that Scu didn't enjoy his finest hour aboard.  On the way back into the paddock I mentioned it to him and he replied 'Let's go behind the saddling boxes to sort this one out!'.  I won't mention the name of the horse, but he was called High Knowl!  I wonder if he remembers?!  Anyway, happy birthday Scu...

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I see that flat trainer Mrs K Burke is looking for an apprentice (sounds a bit like Lord Sugar!).  It's a shame that I can't do 8-4, in fact, I struggled to do that sort of weight when I was born!

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The US Open starts today at Merion Golf Club but with the weather they are enduring at the moment, there could be quite a few delays.  M Kulcher at 22/1 and Luke Donald at 40/1 look interesting to me.  It is not a long course so (and I know it sounds obvious) hitting the ball straight is of primary importance and these two meet that criteria.  Surely Martin Kaymer has to start playing some good golf soon and he is another one to keep in mind at odds of around 100/1.