Epsom Oaks Day

The girls take centre stage at 4pm this afternoon with the Oaks at Epsom on the eve of Derby day.  The unbeaten Desert Flower who runs in the Godolphin silks for Charlie Appleby and William Buick is favourite ahead of an Aidan O'Brien duo and I think she will take all the beating.  Desert Flower won the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket just over one month ago and if she were to follow up this victory she would be just the fourth filly this millennium to achieve this feat.  This will be the furthest distance she has races over but the team obviously think the trip will be no problem and that is good enough for me.

Epsom is just one of five flat meetings today with cards also at Thirsk, Bath, Goodwood and Doncaster.  There is one jumps card at Bangor while in Ireland they have a fixture under both codes with the flat action coming from Fairyhouse and the jumps from Clonmel.  There are no runners from the stable today.

Last night, Jaipaletemps ran a little better on his first start since a wind operation to be third at Ffos Las.  The ground was not soft enough but he jumped and travelled well and did keep going a little better than he had in his previous British starts.  I hope this will run will have done him good mentally and with a little more help from the handicapper he can build on this going forwards.

There are plenty of International football matches today with Wales in World Cup qualifying action at home to Liechtenstein at 7.45pm while Ireland have a friendly against Senegal and Scotland against Iceland.  

The England cricketers have a Twenty20 game against the west Indies starting at 6.30pm while Somerset are in action in the Vitality Blast away to the Sussex Sharks.  Somerset have won their opening two games in this competition but so have Sussex so it should be a good game.  

The French Open tennis has reached the men's semi-final stage.  Carlos Alcaraz plays Italian Lorenzo Musetti in the first match at 1.30m while Jannik Sinner against Novak Djokovic follows.

Of all of my body parts, my fingers are the most reliable.

I can always count on them!

Have a great Friday!