Kerry National Day

There is jumps racing up at Perth today and jockey Sean Bowen and trainer Gordon Elliott could be people to follow, quite often they combine to win at Perth but not today though both look to have very good chances of winners separately.  There are three flat meetings today at Goodwood, Redcar and Kempton.  In Ireland, we have day four of the Listowel Festival and it is back to action over jumps.

The feature race on the Listowel card is the Kerry National at 4.23pm.  There is a maximum field of 18 runners for the three mile chase and it looks a very open betting race.  Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott have multiple runners each but it is the Mullins trained You Oughta Know who is the current favourite and the choice of Paul Townend.  Shecouldbeanything would be my tentative selection for the race at about 9/1.

Looking ahead to the weekend and International racing, I see that Frankie Dettori has been booked to ride the globe trotting Rebel's Romance for the Charlie Appleby Godolphin team at Aqueduct on Saturday.  Having met the multiple group one winner's work rider when playing golf recently, I know he will be out in America with the horse and I shall be watching with interest.  The eight time winner has won over £11 million in prize money in a star studded career and is looking to add to his successes with Frankie on board this time.  

Yesterday, Cheltenham announced some new measure to try to encourage more people to attend the 2026 Cheltenham Festival.  In short, drink prices are being cut, crowds capped and car parking is being upgraded.  The price of a pint of Guinness is being reduced by 30p, to £7.50 a pint which is the same price as in 2022.  A new capacity of 66,000 is also being introduced as overcrowding being cited as one of problems in their research into falling numbers.  73,875 was the record attendance at the Festival in 2022. Tickets prices have been frozen for the second successive year and longer discount windows to get the tickets have been introduced.  There have been many refurbishments throughout the racecourse and work has been done on the different car parks as well.  Cheltenham have said further changes in the future will be considered but this is at least a start in the hope to draw people back to our sports Olympics.

Last night there was a good win for Wolves over Everton in the League Cup while Liverpool and Chelsea also won.  Manchester City, Arsenal, Newcastle and Spurs are all in cup action this evening.

Tonight we have the Opening Ceremony for the Ryder Cup golf which is taking place at Bethpage, just outside New York this weekend.  This would normally take place tomorrow (Thursday) and the opening pairings of players would be announced but with some stormy weather in the forecast the decision was made to bring everything forward so it did not get interrupted.  While the ceremony will take place, the names will not be revealed until the usual time, I can't wait to follow in the action this weekend!

What has legs but doesn't walk?

Yesterday's answer: A Clock (What has hands but can't clap?)

Have a good day!