Royal Ascot Day 4

 
       Fergus Gillard is back riding out

It is the fourth day of Royal Ascot and there is also flat action from Redcar, Newmarket and Goodwood today as well.  There is one jumps meeting at Market Rasen while in Ireland there is jumping at Down Royal and a flat card at Limerick.  The stable does not have any runners today but we shall keep an eye on the opening contest on the card, a juvenile hurdle.  The horse that finished second to Koi Dodville at Hexham runs in the 12.40pm so it will be interesting to see how he fares against some newcomers, particularly the Dan Skelton and Oliver Greenall trained horses.  David Noonan and Tom Scudamore are both in action up at Market Rasen while I bring good news on Fergus Gillard.  He had his stitches out yesterday and is back in riding out at Pond House this morning.  These jockeys are made of strong stuff, it was only just over a week ago he sustained a nasty cut to his head but thankfully he can now get his hat back on and it is all systems go!

Taking a quick look back at the action from Royal Ascot, Mohaafeth was an impressive winner of the Hampton Stakes.  Remember, he was well fancied in the Derby before William Haggas withdrew him late because of the soft ground but this decision was well and truly vindicated yesterday.  The horse did drift right and cause a bit of interference in the closing stages but was well enough clear at the line for this to not cause any doubt to the result.  In the feature race, the Gold Cup I was willing for Stradivarius to win his fourth and equal the mighty Yeats.  He was a long way back in the race and suffered interference rounding the home bend which cost him all chance of winning but take nothing away from the winner, the Mark Johnston trained Subjectivist.  He tanked through the race at the front before quickening it up under a super ride from Joe Fanning.  There was no fluke about the result and I could see him coming back and winning the race again next year, I was very impressed.

In todays action at Royal Ascot the girls take centre stage in the Coronation Stakes at 4.20pm.  It is the battle of the 1000 Guineas queens as Mother Earth takes on Empress Josephine, even though they are both trained by Aidan O'Brien it should be a fascinating watch.  Mother Earth won the English 1000 Guineas at Newmarket while Empress Josephine won the Irish equivalent.  Mother Earth finished second in France since then but it was reported she did not like the soft going that day so should appreciate today's return to a quicker surface.  Ryan Moore rides Mother Earth and while I think she is the likely winner, this is her toughest assignment to date and she has more than just her stablemate to worry about.  Big fields and very competitive high class action in the order of the day at Royal Ascot and I don't think I will attempt to pick any winners, but just sit back and enjoy the action!  One thing I have noticed this week which I think is good is that how spread out the winners have been.  I don't think there has been domination by a single stable or jockey and the winners have gone to many different yards and riders which is nice to see and probably just shows how competitive the racing is.

In the Euro 2020 tournament, the Netherlands are the first team through to the next round as winners of their Group, Group C.  They beat Austria 2-0 last night while the Ukraine beat North Macedonia 2-1.  Belgium beat Denmark 2-1 in the first game of the day yesterday.  Tonight I am sure all eyes will be on Wembley at 8pm as England play Scotland, hopefully the action will live up to the hype!  As I have mentioned before there is a little bit of rivalry at Pond House as we have a few passionate Scots here - hopefully the English will have the bragging rights this time tomorrow!! Todays other games are Sweden versus Slovakia at 2pm and Croatia versus the Cech Republic at 5pm.

What do you call and unemployed jester?  Nobody's fool!  Have a nice day.