6 Flat Meetings Today

It's a blank day on the jumping front, but there are six meetings taking place on the level with fixtures from Newbury, Nottingham, Haydock, Hamilton, Newmarket and Pontefract.  Much as you would expect, the best prize money on offer today is over in Ireland at their Kilbeggan card where they have £105,000 up for grabs.  I know it is very much out of season now, but you would think that race planning would ensure that at least one of those meetings today is a National Hunt fixture...what on earth are they thinking about?

I see that champion jockey A P McCoy will have plenty of fancied rides at Market Rasen tomorrow as he bids to surpass Martin's total of 4191.  I suppose then he will kick on for 5,000.  I think he will keep riding until he is no longer champion (although that is difficult to imagine) - he is very fit and has no vices, although he is an Arsenal supporter so he's a Gooner!

There is some cracking good jumps action from Market Rasen tomorrow for their Summer Plate meeting.  Hardly surprising given the amount of prize money they have on offer - as well as the big chase there are a couple of very valuable hurdle races so it should be a very competitive card.  David has a number of entries for the meeting, including our Perth Gold Cup winner Guess Again (pictured above) who is engaged in the big chase.

Trainer Joey Ellis won a rug that cost £800 when she trained the winner of the seven furlong handicap at Brighton yesterday.  She said, "I'm going to put that on my bed and sleep under it"  Surely if it is a rug, it goes on the floor and you sleep on top of it?!

It wasn't such a good day for former flat champion jockey Kieren Fallon as he travelled all the way up to Hamilton to ride two horses for Godolphin trainer Saeed bin Suroor only for the pair of them to finish last.  It must have been a long journey back to Newmarket.

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Why is it that the England bowlers cannot knock over the Indian tail end batsmen?  We had them on the ropes on 145-7 and they are now 290-9.  The pitch looks like an absolute stinker, but as long as the thunder and lightning do not interrupt play too much there should be a result.  The Indian total is beginning to look like a good score.

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In the first round of the Open golf yesterday there was a great round of 66 from Rory McIlroy.  There was also a tremendous knock from 24 year old amateur Ashley Chesters who carded a 2 under par round and heads for the silver medal.  Let's hope that the weather does not get too bad as it was perfect golfing weather yesterday.  If the wind starts to pick up we will see some big scores - there were 49 players who shot under-par rounds yesterday, I bet there will not be that many today.

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