Arc Weekend

Today we have five meetings, flat cards at Ascot, Newmarket, Redcar and Wolverhampton plus a jumps card at Fontwell.  David does not have any runners today.  The big race is the Sun Chariot stakes, a Group 1 at Ascot at 3.25pm.  Aidan O'Brien has two runners and Ryan Moore is on board Hermosa so that is the one for me.  It is also of course Arc weekend and there is racing at Longchamp.  The English trainers have four favourites but I am not sure I will be backing any of them, lets hope I am wrong.

I see that is my mate, Barney Curley's 80th birthday today.  He was a legendary gambler and is now a charity fundraiser.  One of my fondest memories is visiting his house in Newmarket and when I walked in he was sat having breakfast with Lester Piggott.  I would love to have been able to sit down with those two again one day as they could certainly tell some stories.  Happy birthday Barney.

I was watching the racing action yesterday and two French imports made their British debuts and won nicely and could be horses to follow.  Echiqour and Botox won at Hexham and Fontwell and they were quite impressive so could follow up.  They have gone in my diary of horses to follow!  There was also another horse I liked in Ireland that won yesterday called Bigbadandbeautiful, a good name to remember!  He won a listed race in good style and is one I shall be keeping an eye on.

There are some good football matches on today.  Liverpool versus Leicester looks a cracker on paper and Liverpool at 5/11, Norwich 29/20, Watford 11/10 and my team West Ham 21/20 are all of interest to me.  West Ham is the live game at 5.30pm so there are no prizes for guessing where I will be!  I see Liverpool were fined £4,460 by UEFA after their fans ran on the pitch during there game on Wednesday against Red Bull Salzburg.  This seems a rather small amount and hardly worth it for me?!

Andy Murray played well but still lost 6-2, 7-6 to  Dominic Thiem in the quarter finals of the China Open.  He is getting better but still has a long way to go.

Don't forget England play Argentina at 9am this morning live on ITV.  Rugby is not one of my favourite sports but I shall be tuning in - I have a very busy day ahead!

Train spotting, how sad are they?  I counted 35 the other day!  Have a nice day.