6 Runners At Ffos Las

There are six meetings taking place this afternoon and the headline act is obviously day three of the Royal Ascot meeting.  They are supported by flat cards at Ripon, Warwick, Leicester and Lingfield, while there is a competitive jumps card at Ffos Las.  The stable has six runners at the Welsh track - Third Of The Third, Oddjob (pictured above), The Tracey Shuffle, Qulinton, Bathwick Man and Waterunder.  The last named pair appear to have a tough task ahead of them as they take on probably the best handicapped horse in the country in Busted Tycoon.  Busted Tycoon won again at Uttoxeter yesterday afternoon and would have still won pulling a milk truck - the four year old filly is laughing at the handicapper at present, let's hope she doesn't run today!

It was certainly a day to remember for James Doyle at Royal Ascot yesterday - a real case of London bus syndrome.  Before yesterday he had never ridden a winner at the Royal meeting, and then three of them came along at once!  I thought he gave the Roger Charlton trained Al Kazeem a very good ride and he didn't panic when Paul Hanagan kick for home aboard Mukhadram, getting up to score by a neck.  I think we might have seen the last of Camelot - he doesn't appear to be the horse he was at the start of last season and could be off to stud.

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I see that it is the birthday of the loudest bookmaker in the world.  Mickey "The Asparagus Kid" Fletcher is 68 today - the jockeys tell me that they could hear him shouting halfway through a race and I am talking about the Grand National!  Mickey is a real character and had a horse with Martin called Kailash that won several races back in the 90's.  Many happy returns Mickey...

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I hope you all followed me into backing England against South Africa in the cricket yesterday.  They disposed of the visitors by an easy seven wickets, so hopefully England will be able to build on that and win the final.

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My mates tell me that there is some sort of rugby match going on in Brisbane today.  The British Lions play, mind you it looks more like the Welsh Lions to me...they have no fewer than eight players selected while England have only three.

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Q.  What is a zebra?
A.  26 sizes larger than an 'a-bra'...keep smiling!