Sunday, June 21, 2009

Royal Ascot reviewed

A splendid meeting this year with the highlights including Canford Cliffs' sensational six length victory in the six furlong Coventry Stakes, Jealous Again's five length victory in the five furlong Queen Mary Stakes and Ghanaati thrashing some classy-looking rivals in the Coronation Stakes. The one exceptional performance was Yeats becoming the first horse ever to win a fourth Ascot Gold Cup - that will certainly live long in the memory.

On the punting front three winners from twelve wagers gave me a strike rate of 25% but I'm afraid the starting prices of the winners weren't big enough to ensure a profit - over the meeting I returned a loss of £2.67 to a £1 level stakes bet.

During the week I didn't catch an awful lot of the BBC's fashion coverage (thankfully) but on Saturday I did catch Rishi Persad coming on rather strongly to the racy Suzi Perry. Mr Persad commented 'You're hot, ' to Ms Perry and I don't think he was saying that just because the sun had made an appearance from behind the clouds. Mrs Tips, far more atuned to this sort of stuff than me, described his behaviour as 'serious flirting'. These days, one has to say, standards are slipping, aren't they? I'm sure I heard a character in 'Home And Away' use that line a couple of weeks ago...

Of course, while the great and the good go to the races, the big bad world keeps turning round. The scandal surrounding MPs' expenses fails to die down. The Daily Mail reports that amongst the many and varied expense submissions, Richard Spring, Member of Parliament for West Suffolk, claimed £39 for copies of the Racing Post 'necessary because Newmarket racecourse is in his constituency, he says.' Hmmmm...

I didn't see any televised racing on Friday as I went with my daughter to an open day held at the Birmingham Conservatoire. Now, I thought a conservatoire was a place double-glazing salesmen met to discuss strategy, security and safety-glass; I now know different. In the afternoon, while my daughter attended a workshop entitled 'Early Music & Historical Vocal Class' I went to the 'Jazz Jam Session' where a number of young, gifted musicians gave an impromptu concert that rates the best free event I've attended in a very long time - marvellous stuff. The date of the next open day is already in the diary...

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