Aussie Win

Today there are four flat meetings at Chepstow, Thirsk, Windsor and Wolverhampton.  Once again there was heavy rain around the country over the weekend and we have 15mm of rain to add to the recent deluge.  The ground at Chepstow is forecast as heavy so make sure your selections go on the ground.  There is jumps racing at Newton Abbot tomorrow evening and David has a few entries.  The going there is currently heavy, soft in places so they will be hoping that there is not too much more rain before then.  Check back here tomorrow for more news of runners coming up this week.

What a week at Royal Ascot.  Frankel the superstar and what a performance to win a Group 1 by so far.  Black Caviar nearly got caught on the line as jockey Luke Nolen eased the mare own in the last 30 yards and if she had got beat he would have been locked up!  What about the punter who had £1000,000 on her at 5/1 on, I bet he had a few missed heart beats.  In my opinion this great Australian mare obviously ran below form.  Maybe a hard season or the travelling had finally caught up with her.  Frankel was much more impressive but it was great the Aussies brought this wonder horse over and that she won.  My star horse of the week however has to be Simenon who won twice at the Royal meeting.  The second of those wins on Saturday clinched Ryan Moore the jockeys title for the week and it was great for trainer Willie Mullins who had not had a Royal Ascot winners before the week started but ended up with two!  I am sure this horse will be going over hurdles at some point and that is really something to look forward to.

Sometimes the best football teams do not always win the game but last night I did think Italy were a little better than England.  They created more chances and even hit the post twice.  For England to reach the quarter finals was about as good as we could of expected and if you picked a European 11 how many English players would get in the team?  Probably only Gerard and Cole.  Spain look the best team and the Germans the second best.  You would think however there was a better way of settling a match than a penalty shoot out, England would have more chance if they tossed a coin!