Royal Ascot Final Day

There is a busy day of racing ahead with seven meetings taking place on these shores today.  The jumps action comes from Perth, whilst there are flat fixtures from Ascot, Ayr, Newmarket, Redcar and Haydock on the all-weather at Lingfield.  Of course, the big meeting is at Ascot where it is the final day of their Royal meeting and it has drawn plenty of runners as you would expect.  I had to double take when I saw 27 runners lining up for the Group 1 Platinum Jubilee Stakes at 4.20pm.  When was the last time you saw that many runners in a Group 1 race?  Mind you, with £567,000 prize money to the winner, it is not surprising.  With the 28 runner Wokingham Stakes following that, good luck if you are thinking of having a go at the ITV 7!

We were out of luck at Market Rasen yesterday with Olympe de Gouges and Defi d'Oudairies both unplaced.  The latter probably found the ground plenty lively enough, whilst the loss of both front shoes will not have helped either and he can certainly be given another chance.

Inspiral staked her claim as the best three year old filly in training with a dominant performance in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot yesterday, scoring by almost 5 lengths from the previously unbeaten Spendarella.  Having been forced to miss the Guineas, connections said that she would improve for this run (her first in 252 days) and that bodes ominously for those taking her on later in the season.

There are no runners from the Pond House team today, although we will be back tomorrow with five runners at Worcester, so come back then to find out more...

*****

In football news, I see that Sadio Mane has been dealt to Bayern Munich for £35.1 million.  The 30 year old Liverpool forward, who has been integral to their recent run of success had been in contract until next summer but will now be heading to Germany.

Charles Leclerc will face a ten place grid penalty in this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix after needing to change more engine components.  Trailing title rival Max Verstappen by 34 points going into this race, the Ferrari has looked very fast, but a catalogue of errors from team and driver have led to a number of opportunities lost and he faces losing further ground here.  Qualifying takes place today with the race tomorrow.

*****

The guy who stole my diary just died. My thoughts are with his family.