Group 1 Action

There are six meetings taking place this afternoon with flat action from Ascot, Newmarket, Redcar, Haydock and Ayr and all-weather flat action from Lingfield.  It is Shergar Cup day at Ascot and once again, it looks like a nightmare for commentator with all of the runners carrying similar designs.  I get confused by who's who, so whilst I understand the team aspect of the event, why can't they carry the owners' regular silks, but with a cap the colour of each team?  Or am I being stupid?  On second thoughts, don't answer that!

What I would say about the Ascot card, is that it hosts the races for today's Scoop 6 (races 3-8) and with no more than ten runners in any race, it looks like one of the easiest opportunities you will ever get to land the jackpot.  Just pick the winner of each race, what could be easier?!

The best of the action on these shores comes from Newmarket where the two year old's take centre stage in the Group 3 Sweet Solera Stakes.  Mind you, the field sizes for their card have been decimated by the prevailing good/firm ground.

Over in Ireland the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh is the big race of the day and Hollie Doyle is aboard the favourite, Bradsell for Hollie Doyle.  He had a couple of these behind him when successful in the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot and that form could not have turned out much better with the second, third and fourth all winning Group 2 contests subsequently.

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Yesterday marked another good day for England in the Commonwealth Games and they are now only nine medals (three golds) behind Australia in the table.  Matty Lee and Noah Williams were fantastic in the synchronised 10m diving - it is quite incredible how they managed to time their dives so closely.  I bet they would be good at the three-legged race! Why isn't that an event at the games?

Arsenal made the perfect start to the Premiership yesterday, beating Crystal Palace 2-0, mind you, they will face tougher assignments in the months ahead.  Speaking of which, newly promoted Fulham take on Liverpool - they don't get much tougher than that.

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Thought for the day...Before Mount Rushmore was carved, it's beauty was unpresidented.