Goodwood Cup Cracker

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with a jumps card from Perth and flat fixtures from Goodwood, Redcar, Sandown and Leicester.  Meanwhile, over in Ireland it is day two of the Galway Festival.  The big race of the day is the Group One Sussex Stakes at 3.35pm.  Sadly we have been deprived a real 'Duel on the Downs' following the defection of Guineas winner Coroebus.  Unbeaten Baaeed, currently the highest-rated horse in the world, will be a warm order, although he is not really a betting proposition at massive odds-on.

There was a cracking finish to the Goodwood Cup yesterday with Ascot Gold Cup winner, Kyprios just prevailing from the ever popular Stradivarius.  The best news is that on the back of this performance, the persistent retirement rumours for the runner-up have been quelled for the time being at least.

We have decided against making the long trip up to Perth and so there are no runners from the Pond House team today, although we will be back in action tomorrow at Stratford, so come back then to find out more.

We were out of luck at Worcester last night with Iron Heart making a terrible mistake at the first in the 2m4f handicap hurdle, giving Fergus Gillard very little chance of maintaining the partnership.  Al Roc was disappointing in the same race, fading once headed and he is certainly a better chaser than hurdler, as his rating would suggest.

*****

What a performance from England last night to beat Sweden 4-0 in the semi-finals of the Women's Euros and book themselves a place in the final at Wembley on Sunday.  Taking on the world's number two ranked side, after a scrappy first half, the Lionesses really upped their game in the second half.  The third goal, a backheel from Alessia Russo was as audacious an effort as you are likely to see.  They will now face the winner of tonight's game between Germany and France.

England's cricketers are in action again today as they take on South Africa in Bristol in the first of a three match T20 series.  They will play three times over the coming five days.

*****

What does Jeff Bezos do before bed?  He puts his pyjamazon.