Perth, Epsom Runners

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with a jumps card from Perth and flat fixtures from Haydock, Yarmouth, Newbury and Epsom.  David has one runner today as Iron Heart (pictured above, courtesy of Kay Hornbrook) travels all the way up to Perth to contest the 2m4f conditional jockeys' handicap hurdle at 4.40pm and Lady Reset runs on the level in the Lady's Derby at Epsom at 6.01pm.  Iron Heart excelled himself when runner-up at Worcester last week, conceding 30lbs to a horse that was 11lbs ahead of the handicapper and finds himself 4lbs 'well-in' today as a consequence.  He is not a frequent winner, but a reproduction of that latest effort would give him excellent claims with Philip Armson in the saddle.

Lady Reset just does not know how to run a bad race and she looks to have leading claims in the 1m4f lady amateur riders' race.  She was only narrowly beaten last time out on the level and should be right there again with the excellent Serena Brotherton in the saddle.  The unique nature of the track is something of an unknown, whilst she shapes as though she will get this longer trip.  Good chance if she does.

Itacare ran a cracker at Worcester yesterday, just coming off third best in a rousing finish to the 2m7f handicap hurdle.  He was beaten just over a length and in conceding a stone to the winner, he was probably producing a personal best effort.  He will get little respite from the handicapper for this, but has shown that he continues in good form and is capable of winning something similar.

I see that connections have decided to call time on the fabulous career of Buveur d'Air, the former dual Champion Hurdle winner.  What a fantastic horse he was and he will enjoy a fabulous retirement at owner, J P McManus' Martinstown Stud, where he will join other retired champions, Istabraq and Binocular.

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It wasn't a good day for the Brits on centre court at Wimbledon with Emma Raducanu and Andy Murray both losing their second round matches.  I did say that Garcia was a dangerous opponent for Raducanu, whilst Murray made a good fist of his match against John Isner, but faced a barrage of sublime 130mph+ serving from the 6'10" American who played the game of his life.  Hopefully there will be better to come today with Katie Boulter set to play on centre court for the first time as she takes on Ka Pliskova, who she beat last month.  British men's number one Cameron Norrie made it through to the third round yesterday and surely it is only a matter of time before he makes it onto the main show courts.

There is a great weekend of British sport ahead of us, with not only Wimbledon continuing, but also the British Grand Prix from Silverstone, for which first practice takes place tomorrow.  There are a few showers in the forecast over the next few days, which always makes the racing a bit more unpredictable.

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