High Time At Ffos Las!

There are six meetings taking place this afternoon with five on the level from Royal Ascot, Ripon, Southwell, Leicester and Lingfield as well as a jumps card from Ffos Las.  Somehow Southwell have managed to get away with £28,000 in prize money for their seven race card...how low can prize money go?!  The stable has one runner today; High Ville (pictured above) who goes in the handicap hurdle at Ffos Las at 7.45pm.  Our eight year old was twice a winner last term, most recently from a mark of 107 at Uttoxeter and while he finished runner-up a couple of times subsequently a revised mark of 125 suggests that the handicapper overreacted.  He should run creditably, although I would certainly like to see him with a few pounds off his back!

It's day three of Royal Ascot today and it is the best day of the week as far as I'm concerned...it's Ladies' Day!  The feature race is of course the Ascot Gold Cup, a Group One race over 2 1/2 miles.  Some of these would make super staying hurdlers, although I am clearly only dreaming!  Leading Light is the clear form pick and my idea of the most likely winner.

Frankie Dettori is certainly playing his part in Channel 4's coverage of the Royal meeting and has brightened it up no end.  He's a real character and the rest of the presenters are not, it's as simple as that.  All of those funny screens are far too technical for the television viewers, me included!

Wathching yesterday's action, a few fingers were burned when French wonder filly Treve was well beaten.  She didn't look right and wasn't happy at any stage during the race, seemingly hanging throughout.  Maybe she was finding the ground too quick for her liking?

There were 40,549 in attendance at Royal Ascot yesterday and that is 2,000 up on the previous year, while tickets for the grandstand, silver and gold rings are all sold out agian today.  Even so, you can still pay for entry to the Heath so get along, you can't beat Ladies' Day!

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It is just like a World Cup Final for England tonight as they take on Uruquay for survival in the competition - the kick-off is at 8pm tonight on ITV.  The big danger to England is clearly Luis Suarez who adds some real bite to their attack!  I'm not sure he is 100% fit - let's hope not anyway, otherwise it could be curtains and there will be plenty of flags going in the bin!  England are a best priced 6/5 and that is my sort of bet...get on early.

Defending world champions Spain were knocked out yesterday before the group stages even finished - they looked terrible once again as they lost 2-0 to Chile.  How has this side managed to get so bad so quickly?

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Wimbledon is just around the corner and surely Andy Murray is too short with bookmakers at odds of around 3/1.  The greedy layers know that there will be plenty of punters who want to back the home player at any price.

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