Sylvest Second At Worcester

There are four cards taking place this afternoon with flat action from Goodwood, Leicester, Redcar and Sandown.  The abandonment of Perth due to waterlogging means that there is no jump racing on these shores today, although the Galway Festival continues over in Ireland where they have a mixed meeting on offer.  The Goodwood card looks like a real cracker with the twenty runner 2m5f Goodwood Stakes the first race on the card at 2.00pm - that trip will take some getting, especially if there is any overnight rain.  Top weight William Of Orange has to should 9-10, but at least he should handle any cut in the ground and he should go well under Luke Morris.

The big race of the day though is the Sussex Stakes - a Group One race with a prize of over £1/2 million to the winner.  Can you believe that it was three years ago that Frankel won the second of his two Sussex Stakes?  What a privilege it was to have been around during his racing career - I doubt very much whether we will see anything remotely approaching his quality, although the Roger Varian trained Belardo will go in the ground.  He won the Dewhurst last year as a two year old on soft ground and was an excellent fourth in the 2,000 Guineas behind Gleneagles and he could prove a bit of value.

Talking of Goodwood, you could really see the camber of the track on the television yesterday and it clearly makes it a very difficult course to ride.  Perhaps I am speaking through my pocket, but the two year old I fancied, Birchwood was absolutely murdered when a gap closed on him.  He was lucky not to be brought down in the incident.

My Brother Sylvest ran his usual honest race last night to finish second at Worcester in the two mile handicap chase.  Unfortunately for him he bumped into a very well handicapped, rapidly improving winner although he was well clear of the remainder.  The problem with him is that he rarely runs a bad race and consequently he is still well above his last winning mark even though he has not won in over 18 months now.  I don't suppose he will be getting much assistance from the handicapper after yet another solid run.

According to Chelmsford City clerk of the course Andy Waitt the all-weather tracks are not really designed for summer heats over 26ºc.  Why on earth do they call them all-weather then?  Surely they would be better off being called most-weather?!

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The third Ashes Test match starts today at Edgbaston and I would imagine that some of the England batting line-up will be playing for their Test careers following the shambolic effort in the second game.  Ian Bell definitely needs a couple of good knocks - he has scored only 128 runs in his last 12 Tests and his confidence is shot to pieces.  The big difference between the two teams would appear to be Aussie seam bowler Mitchell Johnson - he seems good on any type of pitch.

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Finally, why was the centipede two hours late for the soccer match?  He was putting his football boots one!  Keep smiling...

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