Five Flat Fixtures

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon but you are out of luck if you are a fan of the jumps.  The action is all on the level and comes from Newcastle, Newmarket, Nottingham, Hamilton and Newbury.  Our runners drew a blank yesterday although our two bumper horses; Knight Crusader and Stay Out Of Court both performed with promise when finishing third at Worcester - they will both come on a bundle for the experience and looks as though they want further already.  On the level, Dell' Arca could finish only sixth in the handicap at Salisbury with Ryan Moore at him from a little way out.

I see that Sir Anthony McCoy was at the palace yesterday to receive his Knighthood.  Of all the people that receive this type of recognition, I reckon he deserves it more than most.  Mind you, he is always going to be just 'AP' to me.

When a horse drifts in the betting there is usually a reason for it and word gets out more often than not.  US Army Ranger was a massive drifter on the exchanges yesterday before being called a non-runner for this weekend's Irish Derby due to an unsatisfactory scope.  Having been 8/11 in the morning with bookmakers he was available to back at nearly 10's on the exchanges around lunchtime...it sounds as though somebody has made a few quid out of it.

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Although England are in the difficult half of the draw for the European Championships, at least they have a decent chance in their first match as they take on Supermarket side Iceland.  Swansea Icelandic star Gylfi Sifurrsson said, "We couldn't have planned it better, England is the one we wanted".  It just shows how bad we must be for Iceland to want to play us!  Meanwhile there was a very entertaining match last night as Hungary and Portugal drew 3-3.

Apparently the FA have had secret talks with former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers about him replacing Roy Hodgson as England coach.  Luckily for Hodgson, Rodgers turned the offer down and has now signed as manager of Celtic.  It must give Roy Hodgson plenty of confidence.  Tonight the local derby is between Wales and Northern Ireland - it seems to me that hardly any teams have been knocked out.

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Rory McIlroy has been getting some stick for pulling out of Ireland's Rio Olympics team as he is frightened of contracting the Zika virus.  I thought it was meant to be particularly nasty for pregnant women...is Rory not telling us something?!

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