Weekend Round Up

There is no jumps racing today but there are four meetings on the flat at Newbury, Windsor, Wolverhampton and Lingfield.  In Ireland they have a meeting under each code, on the flat at Gowran Park and over jumps at Listowel.  The stable does not have any runners today.

It was a good sporting weekend and great form of Aidan O'Brien and the Ballydoyle team continues.  Constitution River under Ryan Moore lead home a 1-2-3 for the stable in the French Derby in what was a masterclass of riding by the jockeys in which the result never really looked in doubt for Ballydoyle and plenty of other horses never really got into the race.  We are now counting down the days to the Epsom Derby this weekend and can anyone stop Aidan O'Brien winning his fourth Derby in a row?  Declarations for the big race will be made on Wednesday again so we will soon know who Ryan Moore chooses to ride as the runners are confirmed.

Yesterday, I went to Bicton and watched the Injured Jockeys Fund show jumping competition which was just one attraction on a busy day at the Bicton International Horse Trials.  While the eventing was taking place in a lovely setting we watched the Shetland Grand National and also six jockeys taking part in the challenge that was won by James Best and his young show jumping partner.  There were six jockeys taking part and they were all paired with a young rider and so it was a team event.  The youngster went first against the clock with the jockey following after and the quickest combined time was crowned the winners.  Fences down added penalty time to the score and let's just say it was quite competitive as you can imagine!  The jockeys were riding horses loaned for the event and they had to become quickly acquainted with them in a short warm up so it was not easy for them.  Rian Corcoran was due to be riding but was not needed in the end so the jockeys taking part were James Best, Sean Houlihan, Lorcan Williams, Lorcan Murtagh, Callum Pritchard and Jack Stenhouse (a new name to look out for this season - a good amateur jockey, he will be turning conditional this season for Johnson White and Philip Hobbs).  There were a few other jockeys there supporting and it was a great day out in the sunshine.   

Arsenal lost the Champions League final on penalties on Saturday night to PSG but paraded through the streets of London yesterday to celebrate winning the Premiership and hundreds of thousands of people turned out to see them.  Exeter Chiefs won away at Leicester Tigers yesterday, a very good result as Leicester had not lost at home since March 2025 and it now means the Chiefs are in fourth in the table and in a play-off position with just one match to go next weekend.  There was plenty of cricket action over the weekend and while there are no Vitality Blast matches today, there is another busy fixture list this week as long as the weather does not get in the way.  Us racing fans are praying for rain this week!  The French Open tennis enters its second week with the countdown to the finals this weekend, the players will be hoping temperatures drop from what they have been to make playing just that little bit easier.

I gave my handy man a to-do list.  He only did jobs 1, 3 and 5.  

Turns out he only does odd jobs!

Have a great Monday!