Winning Chemical!

   Chemical Warfare Winner at Market Rasen

It was great to get a first win over hurdles for Chemical Warfare at Market Rasen yesterday.  It was just his third start for the yard and after looking unlucky not to win (or he would have gone very close) last time at Worcester when falling at the last fence so it was nice to get some compensation.  He seems to have enjoyed stepping up in distance and after momentarily looking in a little trouble round the home bend, he powered up the straight from the last to win going away.  This will have done his confidence the world of good and he has a great attitude so I am sure there is more to come.  He is entered again during the week at Newton Abbot and Worcester so we do have the option of running quickly with a penalty is we want to but I am not sure we will be going up that much so we will see how he is and go from there.

There is no jumps action today and the stable does not have any runners but there are six flat meetings.  Alongside Ascot, there is action at Newmarket, Redcar, Ayr, Lingfield and Haydock. There are also two flat meetings in Ireland at Limerick and Down We have reached, day 5 of the Royal Ascot meeting, the finale, and what a week it has been.  The Group 1 races yesterday were won by Kevin Ryan and Tom Eaves and Donnacha O’Brien and Tom Marquand and you could see how much it meant to them all.  Ballydoyle and Ryan Moore added to their winning tallies and it was another great day’s action in the sunshine.

There is just the one Group 1 race on the Royal Ascot card today and that is the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes over 6F at 3.45pm.  Kinross for the Ralph Beckett and Rossa Ryan team just head the betting but it looks wide open.  The seven year old loves Ascot but needs to bounce back from a couple of below par efforts on his final two starts of last season.  I am sure they will have him spot on for this after a break and he would be my tentative selection in the race. 

In yesterday’s Euros action, the Ukraine came from behind to beat Slovakia while Austria beat Poland 3-1 and it was a 0-0 draw between the Netherlands and France.

There are another three Group games today with Georgia taking on Czech Republic at 2pm, Turkey against Portugal at 5pm and Belgium against Romania at 8pm.  I think Portugal have a great team and are contenders for winning the championship with the individual talented players they have but they seem a little bit like England and will face a tough match against the Turks. 

Last night in the Vitality Blast, Somerset lost to Gloucestershire while a little earlier in the day, England also lost to South Africa in the cricket T20 World Cup.  

The England men’s rugby team are in action against Japan this morning but you will have to be up early to watch with the game starting at 6.50am British time.

My GPS told me to turn around.

Now I can’t see where I am driving!

Have a great day!