Royal Ascot Day 2

 
      Conor O'Farrell - in his younger days!

Today we of course have the Royal Ascot meeting as the feature once again but there is also flat racing at Hamilton, Chelmsford and Ripon plus jumping at Uttoxeter.  In Ireland there are two jumps meetings at Wexford and Navan.  David Noonan is in action at Uttoxeter while this morning we have Conor O'Farrell here at Pond House riding out.  Conor has made a good start to the new season and rode winners at both Aintree and Hexham in the last few days.  He is just down in the west country for a few days so thought he would come back and ride out where his career first began in England.  These jockeys work hard to get rides and we certainly try and use Conor when we need an extra jockey, don't forget he won the Becher Chase on Vieux Lion Rouge last season.

There was some terrific performances at Royal Ascot yesterday and Frankie Dettori and Palace Pier got favourite backers off to a good start by winning the opening contest.  While the horses performance perhaps did not have the 'wow' factor some might have hoped for it was still a very good Group 1 win and afterwards Frankie said the horse did not really enjoy the quick conditions underfoot and was not really letting himself down on it.  That is scary for his rivals as shows there is plenty more to come when he has his ideal ground conditions.  Poetic Flare was more impressive in winning for Jim Bolger while it was nice that Cieran Fallon got his first Royal Ascot winner aboard Oxted.  Remember, he rode our last flat winner, Lady Reset a couple of weeks ago and he is a very talented young rider.  William Buick, Andrei Atzeni, Oisin Murphy and Holly Doyle were all on yesterday's role of honour and they are all level pegging to be crowned leading jockey at the end of the week.

There is plenty to look forward to in today's action from the Royal Meeting and while I don't profess to know that much about flat form I see that Paul Kealy's banker of the day is is the Mark Johnston trained Dancing King in the Queen's Vase at 3.05pm.  He has won all four of his starts in handicaps this year and although stepping up in grade he looks to have a good each way chance in a race his trainer does well in.  I am most looking forward to watching Love return to action in the Prince of Wales Stakes at 4.20pm but she faces tough opposition and I am going to have to side with her stablemate Armory to win this one.

In yesterday's Euro 2020 action, Portugal started their tournament with a 3-0 win over Hungary while a messy own goal was enough for France to beat Germany 1-0.  There are three more games today with Wales in action against Turkey at 5pm.  The other matches are Finland against Russia at 2pm and Italy versus Switzerland at 8pm.  Wales drew their opening match so will be looking to get their first win which would put them in a strong position to qualify for the next round.

"This is an ideal spot for a picnic" said he husband.  "Yes is must be" replied his wife. "A million insects can't be wrong!"