Bumper Day Ahead

There is a bumper day of racing ahead with a jumps card from Market Rasen and Cartmel and flat fixtures from Newbury, Newmarket, Ripon, Doncaster and Haydock.  It is Summer Plate day at Market Rasen and the Grade 3 chase has drawn a quality field of 16 runners, whilst 15 line up for the valuable Summer Hurdle on the card.  Almost half the field in both races won last time out and if you can find the winner of each, you may wish to purchase a lottery ticket to bring up the trifecta!  Camprond looks reasonably treated on the basis of his third in the Swinton Hurdle and he is somehow allowed to run from the same mark today.  A winner last time out over course and distance, he could be the one to beat but is short enough in the market considering the competitive nature of the race.

Meanwhile, in the chase a tentative chance is taken on Fire Away who has been successfully mixing hurdles and fences.  He was an impressive winner over timber last time and over fences before that.  The return to a right-handed track could help him further and he won't mind the prevailing good ground.

The best of the racing on the flat comes from Ireland today where the Group 1 Irish Oaks at 3.30pm is the highlight.  Of the eight runners, six of them are trained by the O'Brien family, whilst the other two are big outsiders.  Snowfall won the English Oaks by 16 lengths and she is long odds-on to complete the double today, although the ground is likely to be far more lively than at Epsom.

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South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen continues to lead the British Open golf after the second round and is two shots clear on -11 after a round of 65 yesterday.  His opening two rounds are the lowest in the competition's history, largely due to the favourable conditions at Royal St George's and the weather looks set fair for the weekend too.

Lewis Hamilton was fastest in yesterday's qualifying session yesterday at Silverstone, edging out Red Bull's Max Verstappen by 0.075 seconds, although no-one is quite sure if he is on 'pole' or not as the results decide the order for today's sprint race, a 17 lap contest, which in turn decides pole for tomorrow's feature race.  The times are very close at the top so today should be interesting session and will reveal who is willing to take the most chances to get to the front tomorrow.

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Did you hear about the Mexican magician who told his audience that he would disappear on the count of 3?
He said, "Uno, dos..." and then vanished.
He disappeared with a tres.