Another Early Start

It's another early start for the team today in an effort to avoid the worst of the temperatures.  There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with flat fixtures from Nottingham, Newbury, Newmarket and Thirsk and an all-weather card from Wolverhampton.  Unsurprisingly, given the scorching temperatures, the turf tracks today are all offering good/firm ground, but you would have to say that course officials have done extremely well to provide that.  There is certainly no more of the hard going that used to prevail in the summers of years past.

The pick of the action today comes from Newbury, where there is a 5f Listed contest for two year old fillies and the likely favourite is Maylandsea, who ran a great race when runner-up at Royal Ascot in June.  She does have a disappointing effort to overcome last time when upped in trip however.

Meanwhile, over in Ireland, there is a jumps card from Tramore (where the ground is good/yielding in places!) and there is no shortage of runners there or at Cork, where there flat card plays host to Listed and Group 3 contests.

Frankie Dettori treated racegoers at Lingfield yesterday evening to one of his flying dismounts as he won a leg of the racing league.  Once reserved for Group 1 successes, a handicap at Lingfield does seem a bit low-key for such a celebration, but it is great that he is trying to broaden the appeal of the initiative and the exuberant Italian remains one of the biggest draws in racing.

*****

It is fairly quiet on the domestic sports front and with temperatures once again forecast well into the 30's, I would imagine that the athletes aren't too sorry.  There is some championship football action with Watford and Burnley (both relegated from the Premier League last season) playing each other at 8pm tonight.  They both come here on the back of a win and a draw in their opening two matches as they seek a way back to football's top table.

*****

As Gemma mentioned yesterday, I had the day off for my 15th wedding anniversary, but we ended up travelling to Basingstoke to take our daughter Imogen skydiving at the I-Fly centre.  It was a tremendous experience and she thoroughly enjoyed it, although she isn't stupid - she won't be jumping out of an aeroplane anytime soon.  Cameron was less ecstatic, stating that he prefers karting.  As for me, I loved it and didn't crock my back, so that's always a bonus when you reach that sort of age! 

*****

Why was the belt arrested?  It held up a pair of trousers.