Big Day

It is a big day today, lots of racing and sport again but more importantly, Chelsea is getting married!  Chelsea ties the knot with Simon this afternoon at Charlton House and several of our staff will be joining them for an evening of celebration tonight! I am sure you will all join me in wishing them a very happy wedding day!

 Today the Shergar Cup heads the racing action a Ascot but there are also flat cards at Newmarket, Redcar, Haydock, Lingfield and Ayr.  In Ireland they have Group races at the Curragh and also have a jumps fixture at Kilbeggan. 

To me, the Shergar Cup is a bit like the Racing League.  I can see why we do it and Racing has to do different things to encourage new people to watch our sport but I can’t really get ‘into it’. Adaay in Devon heads the betting for the opening contest, trained by Rod Millman.  She is a high class filly with a great attitude and will be partnered this afternoon by Japanese rider Nanako Fujita, I think she will run well.  The first Shergar Cup took place in 1999 at Goodwood and four teams (made up of three riders) earn points for their team depending on where they finish in the race.  While they are all trying to win points for their team there is also a prize for the leading rider on the day as well.  The four teams are Europe (Bauyrzhan Murzabayev, Jose-Luis Borrego, Alberto Sanna) , Great Britain & Ireland (Tadgh O’Shea, Seamie Heffernan, Billie Loughnane) The Rest of the World (Rachel King, Rachel Venniker, Nanako Fujita) and the Ladies (Hayley Turner, Marie Velon, Joanna Mason).  The ladies are usually a team to follow and have won in three of the last five years and are defending champions.

It was another super day at the Olympics yesterday for the Great Britain and Ireland team with a gold medal, a first ever in climbing for 19 year old Toby Roberts.  Katarina Johnson-Thompson ran a terrific 800m race, the final event of the heptathlon to win silver.  She needed to beat her rival Thiam by 8 seconds to win gold which was never that likely but she did beat her by 6 seconds so she gave it a very good go!  We won silver in the womens 4 x 100m relay and silver in the velodrome as well to to name just a few of the highlights.  We have already reached the penultimate day of the Paris Olympics and there are 15 more gold medals up for grabs today so fingers crossed for some more success.

My daughter was doing history homework and asked me what I knew about Galileo.
I said.  "He was a poor boy from a poor family".

Have a great Saturday!