Two Runners At Newton

There are six meetings taking place this afternoon with flat action from Ascot, Chester, Hamilton, Newmarket and Salisbury as well as a jumps card from Newton Abbot.  David has two runners at Newton Abbot; Ekayburg and Picture Painter who both contest the 2m2½f handicap hurdle at 4.45pm.  Ekayburg (pictured above) had some very good bumper form in France and took a step back in the right direction when second on the flat recently at Leicester.  He is fit and well and reverts to hurdles today.  If he puts his best foot forward he would have a good chance under Tom Scudamore.  Our other runner, Picture Painter had been knocking on the door before disappointing last time out.  He needs to improve on that effort but would have place claims on his earlier runs.  David Noonan is in the saddle.

I thought that Oisin Murphy gave Veracious a cracking ride to win the Group One Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket yesterday afternoon.  He dictated matters from the front and he judged the fractions to perfection with none of his rivals able to get by.  The ground was very quick there yesterday with several course records set.

There are a couple of big races on today's card, including the 20 runner Bunbury Cup.  Bookmakers go 13/2 the field so it is wide open and my fancy is Solar Gold at odds of around 8/1.  Then at 4.40pm there is the Group One July Cup over six furlongs.  I fancy Dream Of Dreams for the in-form Sir Michael Stoute team.

Ryan Moore is not having the best of runs at present.  Until yesterday he had gone 29 domestic rides without a winner...that isn't long for some jockeys but given the expectations on Moore it must seem like an eternity.

*****

What a fantastic tennis semi-final yesterday between Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal.  Federer always looked the most likely winner to me and he will now face Novak Djokovic in the final on Sunday.  They have played an amazing 47 times with Djokovic ahead 25-22 on the head-to-head.

It is the turn of the ladies today as Serena Williams plays Simona Halep.  Williams leads their head-to-heads 9-1 so she will be a heavy odds-on favourite today.

I see that Peter Crouch has formally decided to retire from football.  With his build he never looked like a centre-forward to me...he is very tall and very thin.  He was a class goal scorer in the air and famous for the funny robot dance celebration that he would do.  He is getting a bit of publicity on chat shows and adverts of late and he comes across very well so good luck to him.

England beat Uganda 64-32 in Liverpool yesterday.  I am talking about the netball that the BBC seems to be trying to push at the moment...it must be cheap!

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