Sporting Friday

It is going to be another very warm day across the country today and there is once again plenty of sporting action to watch, including racing action.  There are no jumps cards in Britain today but there are lots of flat meetings at Newmarket, York, Ascot, Chester and Chepstow.  In Ireland they have two jumps cards at Kilbeggan and Cork.  The feature race of the day at Newmarket is the Falmouth Stakes, Group 1 at Newmarket at 3.35pm for fillies over a mile.  January is bidding to win in July and heads the betting for the Ballydoyle team but there is stiff opposition from the Godolphin Blue with Cinderella's Dream and recent Royal Ascot winner Crimson Advocate who runs for the Wathnan Racing team .  I am actually going to go for one at a bigger price however, the Saeed Bin Suroor trained Elwateen looks interesting to me with Jim Crowley in the saddle.  She didn't stay in the Oaks at Epsom last time after finishing fourth in the 1,000 Guineas and I think she could go well in this.

There was a bit of unusual drama at Newmarket yesterday when Ghostwriter was a late withdrawal when favourite for the Group 2 feature race following a 'freak accident'.  A £2 million buy last month from the London Sale, he reared over backwards and just sat down in the preliminaries.  He appeared sore after the incident so was immediately withdrawn from the race and taken to an equine hospital to be observed overnight.  Fingers crossed there is good news on him later today.

The England cricketers won the toss and elected to bat in the third test against India at Lords yesterday.  They batted okay and finished on 251-4 at the end of play with Joe Root on 99 runs not out.  It will be a tough first few balls for him this morning!  More of a concern however, is a possible injury to captain Ben Stokes.  He is currently on 39 runs not out but he was hobbling between the wickets with a leg injury so let's just hope he has had some treatment and can continue today.  England will be trying to set a total near 500 runs I imagine for India to chase.  There is plenty of Vitality Blast cricket action this evening and Somerset are in action away to Kent at 6.30pm.  Kent are the only team to have beaten Somerset so far this year in the competition and so we will be seeking revenge for a defeat on home soil tonight.

Day 2 of the Scottish Open golf continues with all of the World's top players in contention after Thursday's round while back at Wimbledon it is Men's semi-final day and there are two mouth watering games to look forward to.  Taylor Fritz plays defending champion Carlos Alacaraz on Centre court at 1.30pm while Jannik Sinner against Novak Djokovic will follow this match.  I predict and hope for a Alcaraz v Djokovic final!  

Yesterday, American Amanda Anisimova beat number one Aryna Sabalenka in the first women's semi-final to become the first American in six years, since Serena Williams to reach the Wimbledon final.  She will play Iga Swiatek in the final tomorrow after she beat Belinda Bencic in straight sets.  

 When you buy a bigger bed, you get more bed but less bedroom!  Happy Friday!