Weekend Jottings

There are just two meetings taking place this afternoon at Salisbury and Doncaster so we have had ten meetings over the weekend and only one jumps fixture at Hexham during that period.  I know it is the flat season, but surely race planning can come up with a more balanced fixture list than that?

Meanwhile next week marks the biggest occasion on the flat calendar with Royal Ascot taking place from Tuesday onward.  David and MCP will be going to the Royal meeting and Martin would usually have one for the long distance races - both he and David have won the Ascot Stakes, while Martin also won the Windsor Castle with Atall Atall and finished runner-up in the Gold Cup a couple of times with Tyrone Bridge and Far Cry...good old days.

Talking of Royal Ascot, do Channel 4 really believe that having Clare Balding back in the fold for the meeting will add thousands of viewers to their audience?  Since the broadcaster won the Epsom contract they have lost 1/2 million viewers in three years and on Saturday recorded an all-time low audience of 1.47 million people.  Something is clearly wrong with the set-up or is horse racing just not as popular as we would like to think?  Personally I am of the opinion that there is just an information overload these days as the coverage has become too technical for the casual viewer and it is proving a real turn-off.  Pair that with the view that the presenters are lacking a great rapport and I think therein lies the answer to the disappointing figures.

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There is a big football match tonight as England take on Slovenia at 5pm on ITV.  The bookmakers make England odds-on favourites at 10/11, although after the garbage they played last week would you wanting to be backing them at odds-on?  England can afford to lose and still qualify and that will probably be in the minds of a few of the players as they would rather be lying on a beach like the rest of their team-mates rather than playing in Ljubljana in June.  Skybet are offering 2/1 that England win to nil and that could be one of the more interesting bets, although hardly a confident selection!

There are plenty of other Euro 2016 Qualifiers today and surely Sweden at 1/2 are going to be too good for Montenegro?  Looking at some of these countries competing in the European Championships they really shouldn't be on the same pitch as some of the blue chip sides.  Perhaps the lesser teams should play in their own competition where the winner gets to compete in the qualifiers?  Gibraltar are 150/1 to win at home...maybe they would be better off if the monkey's played?!

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Russian golfer Andrey Pavlov has a 100% record.  Sadly it is not the sort of record he would like to continue as he has missed the cut fifteen times from fifteen attempts!  He took 17 shots at the par 5 in the Lyoness Open in Austria recently.  Perhaps golf just isn't his sport?  Golf and sex are the only two things that you can enjoy without being any good at either of them!  Have a nice weekend...

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