Ponty Pick

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with a jumps meeting from Uttoxeter and flat fixtures from Pontefract and Brighton and an all-weather flat card from Wolverhampton.  The best of the action comes from Ponty today with their card featuring a Listed fillies' stakes as well as a 0-105 handicap.  A number of the competitors for the Listed contest at 3.00pm featured prominently at Royal Ascot, however, I will be siding with one who finished a bit further down the field.  Agincourt blew the start in the Duke Of Cambridge Stakes but still did well to get into contention and providing she gets away on terms today, she will do for me.

Following Boris Johnson's announcement last night that the final stages of lifting lockdown restrictions could take place later this month, the racecourses will be hectically preparing to welcome back capacity crowds to the track.  One of the first of those will be the Glorious Goodwood meeting which starts on 27th July.  Until now crowds have been limited to 4,000 whilst Royal Ascot had 12,000 visitors each day as a part of a government pilot scheme.  There were a good deal more at Wembley (almost 42,000) to see England beat Germany in the Euros, whilst there will be a capacity 140,000 at the British Grand Prix from Silverstone on 18th July.  Let's hope that all of these events can take place as safely as possible.

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There was a sad end to the Wimbledon journey of British teenager, Emma Raducanu yesterday as she retired from her last 16 match against Ajla Tomljanovic.  Raducanu retired from the game midway through the second set after suffering difficulty breathing.  The 18 year old had previously won £19,000 during her career but will pick up £181,000 for her exploits at Wimbledon...not bad for a week's work!  Let's hope she is none the worse and is soon firing on all cylinders again.

Spain and Italy face off tonight at Wembley in the European Cup semi-finals.  It should be a good match, with the Italians looking the more impressive in the tournament to date.  Anyway, let's hope it is a hard-fought and tiring match as the victors will take on the winner of the England versus Denmark match which takes place tomorrow.

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Finally, with the wedding now complete, a thought for the day...

"I am" is said to be the shortest sentence in the English language.  "I do" is the longest!