Katkeau A French Fancy!

I'm afraid you are out of luck if you are a follower of the jumps as there are only five flat fixtures taking place this afternoon on these shores.  The action comes from Hamilton, Newbury, Newmarket, Newcastle and Nottingham.  There is however the little matter of a meeting from Auteuil where the stable is represented in the Prix Dawn Run (a Listed 2m3 1/2f hurdle) by Katkeau (pictured above), who ran a storming race to finish a close third at the track last time.  He travelled across on Monday evening and took the journey well and has settled in fine.  Tom Scudamore is in the saddle and we are hopeful of another big run from him - the race is on at 2.05pm British time if you can find anywhere to watch it.

I thought that Street Entertainer jumped well on his chasing debut at Worcester yesterday despite finishing a close second to Commitment who had previous experience over fences.  The winner was no slouch over timber and Street Entertainer can certainly win races over the larger obstacles.  Meanwhile Brenda de Ronceray can only improve for her racecourse debut, she ran on in the closing stages once the penny had dropped and Weather Babe ran creditably to finish fourth in the staying handicap hurdle although she looks to be in the grip of the handicapper from a career high mark at the moment.

There were a couple of horses running yesterday with Manchester United connections - the first was Sir Alex Ferguson's Hairdryer while the other was Go Nani Go.  Just like Manchester United, they bot finished out of the frame!  I wonder who I am going to upset this morning?!

I see that trainer Ken Cunningham-Brown enjoyed his first winner since 2007 at Salisbury yesterday.  That is some dry spell...I do hope connections had a good celebration last night!

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England finished bottom of the league in the Under 21 European Football Championships.  They also finished bottom in 2013 and one from bottom in 2011 so there is no sign of any progress.  What a great talker Gareth Southgate is...he will probably find some sort of outrageous excuse like the beds weren't made properly.  He talks a good match but has so far been unable to back it up with results on the pitch.  There has to be something wrong with the England set-up or are the players just not as good as they think they are?

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The US Senior Open Golf starts today and Colin Montgomerie looks worth a bet at 8/1.  He said that he has never been playing better and he is the current holder of the title.  He and Bernhard Langer at odds of around 13/2 should give me a good interest.

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Since broaching the subject of just how bad our ladies' tennis players are they cannot stop winning!  Jo Konta became the first British lady to win three matches in a row at Eastbourne since Jo Durie in 1983.  Mind you, British number one Heather Watson crashed out 6-2, 6-3.

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Finally, did you know that Phobophobia is the fear of fear?  Now there's a frightening prospect!

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