Royal Ascot Day One

It is the start of Royal Ascot's five day meeting this afternoon and that meeting unsurprisingly headlines five fixtures taking place this afternoon.  There are other flat meetings at Thirsk, Nottingham and Brighton while the jumps action comes from Stratford.  It is a case of different worlds this afternoon with over £1million up for grabs at Royal Ascot, while over at Brighton there is the paltry grand total of £28,000 to be competed for across their entire meeting...I suppose at least you get to see the sand and sea of sunny Brighton and if you are lucky enough to own a winner you could even buy yourself an ice cream (just)!

I am looking forward to the Queen Anne Stakes at 2.30pm and the seasonal reappearance of the Richard Hannon trained Toronado.  If he can reproduce his best form he will win this, although he can throw in the odd stinker.  The St James' Palace Stakes looks a thriller too and I will be surprised if Kingman does not reverse Guineas form with Night Of Thunder.  Royal Ascot is one of those sporting events that every country wishes they had - there are the Royal Family,poseurs, fashion, food, oh and I nearly forgot...top class racing!  It always amuses me how the racing seems to come second to a lot of people at the Royal meeting.

The stable had one runner at Newton Abbot yesterday, Purple 'N Gold and I thought that he ran another sound race to finish third beaten only 3 1/2 lengths.  He rarely runs a bad race and I'm sure he will be picking up something similar before the end of the summer.  There was a real treat for young French student Francois Harel, who is currently at Pond House for a month for experience - he went to the races at Newton Abbot and was introduced to this season's leading two jockeys, Tom Scu and A P McCoy (pictured above).

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Talk about German efficiency!  Why is it that Germany are always so well organised?  They looked very good as they beat Portugal 4-0 in the first game of their World Cup campaign last night.  Germany have won every one of their opening World Cup games since 1986 and it looks like it is going to take a good team to beat them at any stage this year.

While we are on the subject of the World Cup, it would seem that Coleen Rooney is expecting England to stay in Brazil for a little while.  She has taken twenty (yes, 20!) suitcases with her...I hope Mrs Barnes doesn't see this - I only ever let her take one big case away with her on holiday and I moan about that!

Today I find out whether all of my football mad mates know what they are talking about or if they are just mad.  They have all been telling me to back South Korea to beat an ageing Russian team.  You can back them at 16/5 to win...why do they have these funny odds?

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I see that Scottish caddy Craig Connelly has won over £200,000 in the past month.  I say he has 'won' it, but it is his boss Martin Kaymer who has been doing all the winning.  Another German!  Football, golf, how many other sports are they going to start dominating?!

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