Bank Holiday Blues!

It is quite a quiet afternoon on the domestic racing front for a Bank Holiday Monday with just three flat cards on today and a good meeting from the Curragh in Ireland.  The only jumps meeting is also in the Emerald Isle and that takes place at Down Royal.  A Bank Holiday and no jump racing in England - what is going on?!  It is unsurpising therefore that we have no runners today.

Camelot was an impressive winner of the 2,000 Guineas on Saturday for young Joseph O'Brien and his father Aidan.  He was staying on strongly in the closing stages and looks a ready made Derby winner to me - the step up in trip will certainly suit him and I can't see anything beating him.  It was 18 year old Joseph's first Classic win in this country and I'm confident that it won't be his last.

Meanwhile Aidan doubled up with the 1,000 Guineas winner yesterday as Homecoming Queen bolted up by 9 lengths at the rewarding odds of 25/1.  It was an impressive performance but it has left me questioning the value of the form - the filly was having her fourteenth start (she had eleven as a two year old and took eight runs to get off the mark) and maybe some of her rivals were below their best.  There was a near half hour delay following the terrible scenes at the start with Gray Pearl and it may just have led to one or two of the others boiling over.  Still, there will be plenty of time later in the season to see whether this was a freak result or if she is as good as she looked.

*****

Chelsea lifted the FA Cup on Saturday and I hope you followed me in and took some of the 6/4 about the Blues.  Surely a Cup win should be good enough to get Di Matteo the managers job - mind you, the chairman does have his own ideas about the game and I reckon that he would have liked to manage the team himself!

It was a great result for Manchester City to beat Newcastle 2-0 at the weekend and almost guarantee them the Premiership.  Yaya Toure, who for me has been the player of the season was the star of the show once again and the title is now City's to lose.  Over at Old Trafford, United did keep their hopes just about alive with a 2-0 win over Swansea, but the team played like a side that knew the title had gone.