Ladies on the Flat

Today and in fact the whole week is all about the flat with the jumps action taking a break for a week.  Today we have flat meetings at Ripon, Kempton, Windsor and Carlisle.  There are two meetings in Ireland at Naas and Cork and they both have more prize money on offer than the cards over here and Cork is a jumps card.  There are loads of runners at Cork, the 3.35pm race has 24 runners and three reserves!  I always think having reserves is a good idea just in case any horses drop out.  The card at Carlisle is a seven race fixture with all runners in every race being ridden by lady jockey's.  Serena Brotherton looks to have a good book of rides and she is an amateur, but a very good one!  There are quite a lot of professionals in action as well, Hayley Turner, Megan Nicholls, and Shelly Birkett to name a few,  A likely winner on the Carlisle card for me is a horse called Honeysuckle Lil in the 7.15pm with Rachel Richardson on board.  This girl can ride and I think she has a great chance of a winner.

It was lucky that there was no racing at Ascot on Saturday.  A light plane had to make an emergency landing of the jumps course and thankfully all four passengers were safely disembarked.  The plane was repaired and then it took off again.  I am not sure that I would have wanted to get back on board!  We once had a problem with the helicopter at Cheltenham and I got a lift home in the lorry, I am not known for my bravery!

There was some great golf from Thai golfer Ariya Jotangugara to become the first Thai to win a Major at the Ladies British Open.  She nearly threw it away with a double bogey towards the end of her round but she help her nerve to pick up a cheque for £340,250 - a good four days work!  It takes Wayne Rooney a week to earn that, mind you he gets that every week!

What a fight between Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz at the weekend.  I see golfer Rory McIlroy was there watching as he had nothing else to do!  Frampton is now a WBA Super Featherweight Champion.

Breaking News: Nuclear submarine on the rocks in Scotland.  Those Scots will really drink anything!  Sorry Sean!  Have a nice day.