Derby Day!

All of the papers are leading this morning with stories about Her Majesty The Queen's Derby runner Carlton House.  It would be great if Her Majesty had a Derby winner...it has nothing to do with me clutching a 6/1 antepost voucher - if you believe that, you will believe anything!  I would imagine that the Royal runner will draw in plenty of extra interest and that viewing figures will be extremely high.  I would imagine that the housewives will probably latch onto Carlton House in the same way they used to back Lester and more recently Frankie.

Talking of Frankie, I don't suppose that he will be wanting to watch the replay of yesterday's Oaks too often.  I thought that he gave favourite Blue Bunting a terrible ride - early in the straight he gave Ryan Moore (aboard Havant) a huge bump, and to make things worse he eased his mount down close home and lost third place to Izzi Top.  He subsequently received a ten day suspension and will miss the last three days of the Royal Ascot meeting - why do they do it?

While we are bashing jockeys, I didn't think it was Stevie Donohoe's finest hour aboard Motivado at Musselburgh yesterday.  I thought that he gave Sir Mark Prescott's runner too much to do, and the 1/2 favourite would have needed to sprout wings from where he was - I expect he said that the horse would need further, but if that is the case then why not make your move sooner?

Anyway, credit where it is due...I thought that Johnny Murtagh produced a masterful ride aboard Oaks winner Dancing Rain.  He absolutley rode the others to sleep, making all at only a steady pace and then just pinching enough of an advantage that he never looked likely to get caught in the straight.

*****

The stable makes the long trip up to Hexham this afternoon where we will be represented by three runners: Raslan, Hunterview and Bathwick Scanno.  We will also have runners tomorrow at Perth - fortunately for us, both our travelling head lads, Bob & Craig speak the language!

*****

The Rodi Greene testimonial cricket match held at Cullompton last night was a great success.  The racing personalities won the match and David looked good (for a ball at least) - his first shot went for four runs, while his second went straight back to the bowler for a simple caught and bowled!  They raised plenty of money too (over £6,000) with principal contributor Tom Malone going to £3,700 to secure the Hong Kong break - business is obviously good in the bloodstock world!  I understand that Rodi was present to witness proceedings and it is great to hear that he is making such good progress from his horrible injuries.