King George VI Day

A colder start to the day.  There are six meetings taking place this afternoon with flat fixtures from Ascot, Newmarket, York and Salisbury as well as on the all-weather at Newcastle and Lingfield.  The big race of the day is the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot at 3.35pm.  It is a race that seems to have lost some of it's significance over the years.  I remember when my great hero, Reference Point won a top quality renewal in 1987 (was it really 35 years ago?), it was the premier all age middle distance test but that doesn't seem to be so much the case anymore with the race often producing small fields owing to lucrative alternatives elsewhere.

Anyway, I digress...despite there being only six runners, it looks a quality line-up with Irish Derby winner, Westover, Arc winner Torquator Tasso, Oaks runner-up, Emily Upjohn and the globetrotting Mishriff amongst the runners.  Personally, I thought that Mishriff (runner-up last year) was desperately unlucky in the Eclipse at Sandown and with James Doyle (who rides Ascot especially well) on board, he could be the one to beat.

We were out of luck at Uttoxeter yesterday afternoon with Port O'Clock and Koi Dodville faring best of our three runners by finishing third.  The ground at the Staffordshire track was softer than anticipated following significant rain and was perhaps a little too testing for our runners.

With the lack of jumping action today, there are no runners from the Pond House team, although we will be back with another couple of runners at Uttoxeter; Free Chakarte and El Paso Wood.  Come back again to find out more about their prospects.

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England's cricketers levelled the one day series with South Africa by handing a comprehensive 118 run beating to the visitors.  It leaves the series finely poised going into the final match at Leeds tomorrow.

Qualifying for this weekend's French Grand Prix from Paul Ricard takes place this afternoon and it promises to be a closely run affair with the Ferrari's and Red Bull's separated by less than a tenth of a second in practice yesterday, although Ferrari number two, Carlos Sainz faces a grid penalty for using too many engine parts during the course of the season so far.

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What do you call a beehive without an exit?  Unbelievable