Frankie's Gold Cup

It is a blank day for the yard with no runners, although there are six meetings on across the country with the fourth day of Royal Ascot the highlight.  It was another fantastic day's action at the Berkshire track yesterday afternoon with Frankie Dettori landing the centrepiece, the Ascot Gold Cup aboard Colour Vision.  It was a great race with no less than four horses involved in the closing stages and Dettori prevailing in a driving finish from the other Godolphin runner, Opinion Poll.  Frankie looked so pleased, I don't think I have ever seen a higher flying dismount - many more like that and he will have to use a safety net!  Favourite Fame And Glory never really looked likely to get involved - his run was too bad to be true and I am sure we will hear an explanation for this below-par performance in due course.

I thought that the winner of the opening race, Clive Cox's Reckless Abandon looked very good in landing the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes.  He must be useful as he gave away so much ground drifting to the near-side rail.  Jockey Adam Kirby was another to look overjoyed, although personally I think that he needs to go back to school about his use of the whip.

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There is an interesting advert in today's Racing Post for a car registration plate - it is for the personal plate BET 1 and the asking price is £250,000!  All of my mates are punters so they are skint, so it can only be a bookie who would be able to afford it!  Just think of all the things you could do with a quarter of a million quid...putting a new piece of plastic on the front of my motor would not be towards the top of my priority list.

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I managed to win a few quid on the Portugal versus Czech Republic game last night as the Portugese won 1-0.  Ronaldo is certainly hitting form at the right time and Portugal could yet be a force at this championship.  Germany take on the Greeks tonight at 7.45pm on ITV.  The Germans look a bit too short for betting purposes at around the 4/11 mark as these matches often seem a lot closer than the betting suggests.