Summer Sabbatical

Apologies for the delay in bringing you this morning's update - a technical issue that is fully resolved now.  Here we go again!  Another break in the jumps programme with day one of our summer sabbatical today upon us.  There is no jumping now until the end of next week.  Whilst a holiday would be nice, it comes too late in the year with most of the winter horses back in training…you can’t just stop riding them, so things carry on very much as normal at the yard.

The action today comes from Ripon, Carlisle and Windsor on the turf and Kempton and Newcastle on the all-weather.  It is not really a day to get the pulses running with a couple of 0-95 handicaps at Kempton and Redcar the highlights.

Ladykiller finished unplaced in the 1m6f handicap on the final day of the Glorious Goodwood meeting on Saturday.  Our five year old was always up against it on his first start back from a break, trying to concede weight to the majority of the field.

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There was another mad race in the Fomula One world championship yesterday, this time in Hungary.  In a wet/dry race, there was carnage at the start when Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas fluffed his getaway and piled his car into the back of McLaren’s Lando Norris at the start, which in turn took out championship leader Max Verstappen among others.  Verstappen was able to continue with large chunks of the side of his car missing, although performance was massively compromised as a consequence, leaving Lewis Hamilton (who finished third) to take the lead of the championship.

The race was won by Esteban Ocon in his Alpine – a first success for both.  Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel finished second but was subsequently disqualified for a fuel irregularity.  I have to be honest, I am getting properly fed up with the stewards, who seem determined to ruin what it turning into a classic season.  Officials were unable to draw the required one litre fuel sample from Vettel’s car, with the vehicle parked on-track…sounds ridiculous to me and obviously those at Aston Martin, who have chosen to appeal.  Meanwhile, the former four-time world champion is also under investigation for not removing his rainbow t-shirt during the national anthems.  The stewards obviously haven’t anything better to do!

Focus on the tenth day of the Olympics continues to be the track and field, but there is also action from the velodrome where the Brits have a rich history of success.  On the equestrian front there is also some eventing to look forward to.  Let’s hope they can bring home more medals today.  Great Britain currently lie sixth in the medals table with ten golds, ten silvers and twelve bronze.