A Coloured Horse in the Royal Procession
The Royal Procession at Royal Ascot is always accompanied by police outriders. Some might be passing derogatory comments as one of these horses appeared to be coloured and some but only a few these days, look down on a skewbald or a piebald horse. But police forces in the UK, have had the odd coloured horse for some years now.
Did You See That One Sepp?
I would suspect that Sepp Blatter may have seen the Ukrainian ghost goal last night for two reasons.
Firstly, even it had been scored, it wouldn’t have changed who went through to the next round.
But of course, he did see it, as it was against England, his bete-noir, who are always complaining about the suspender-loving Swiss idiot.
To be charitable to the England players and officials, they have not denied it was a goal. After all, we have a lot to gain from the Hawk Eye technology to check these problems. as it is developed by a company, based in Winchester. But after seeing Sepp’s judgements on this matter over the last few years, I suspect he’ll give his seal of approval to anybody but this company. Although it is rumoured that the company are working on a system especially for Sepp, that detects if women are wearing Stockings.
But what was the extra linesman doing on the goal-line? Answers on the back of a postage stamp please. He certainly wasn’t looking.
I’ve Found A Nice Cure For Adverts
I’ve got the ITV pictures on my television, but I’ve got the sound off and I’m listening to the commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live.
It doesn’t improve the football, but it does improve the broadcasting experience.
A lot of the adverts I’ve just watched now look totally ridiculous.
There’s one for Official Player Escorts, that could be insinuating things, we’d rather not know.
Will Harvey Smith Salute the Torch into York Racecourse?
It may seem a controversial choice, but Harvey Smith is carrying the torch on the final leg into York racecourse tonight.
So will he give the torch one of his special signature salutes?
Let’s hope he keeps both hands on the reins!
I once saw him give an equestrian demonstration with anecdotes of his life. If ever there was a larger-thsan-life Yorkshireman it’s Harvey.
Are You Watching Cyril?
Vague Shot is a horse I own and he goes by the nickname of Cyril. He is known for winning the Hunt Cup at Royal Ascot in 1987 under top weight in heavy going. He did have the advantage of carrying the best jockey, who ever rode for C or myself, Steve Cauthen. Sadly, we didn’t own the horse at that time and only acquired him later in the year.
A few years later he ran in the first race at Royal Ascot, the Queen Anne Stakes. He wasn’t expected to do well, but we did have a good day out.
I do remember that day, that he was saddled by Julie, Sir Henry Cecil‘s first wife. C commented her on her amazing jacket and Julie said that she’d got it for a few pounds in an Oxfam shop. C approved, especially as it was so good.
Incidentally, Vague Shot is now 29 and happily turned out in a field at the stud I still own and am trying to sell.
This year’s race incidentally was a procession, won by the best horse in the world, Frankel, who is trained by Sir Henry Cecil.
I used to think that Brigadier Gerard was the best horse, I’ve seen either in real life or on television. He now must be rated the best horse, I’ve only seen in black and white. I can still hear Peter O’Sullevan calling out “Here comes the Brigadier!” on the television commentary. Some years ago, I had the pleasure of talking to Joe Mercer, who rode Brigadier Gerard in his races, at a time when I think Xaar was being touted as the greatest. Joe still thought in his heart then that Brigadier was the best. If he still favours the Brigadier, it will be because of this incident.
The Sunday prior to the Brigadier’s third race of the season (at Royal Ascot) Mercer flew to France in a small plane with three others. Soon after take-off the plane crashed and luckily Mercer was thrown clear. He rushed back to the plane and pulled out the trainer Bill Marshall. He could not get the pilot out of the wreckage and gave up trying just before the plane went exploded. Unsurprisingly Mercer was shaken up and there was talk that he would not take the ride on the Brigadier on the first day of Royal Ascot. After taking a day off Mercer declared himself fit to ride on the Tuesday of Royal Ascot and he lined up on Brigadier Gerard for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes. As it was the Brigadier gave one of his most stunning displays beating a field which included the future Irish Derby winner, Steel Pulse, effortlessly. Unlike other runs Mercer reported that the horse did not pull as much as usual. However Mercer felt unwell after the race and did not ride again at the meeting or for the next week.
Joe Mercer was reported at the time to have said something like, the horse did it all himself. There’s a video of it here on YouTube.
A Note For Those On The Other side of the World
The BBC is streaming their coverage of Royal Ascot on the web.
It’s a long way for all those pixels to go.
Where Is Bill Mclaren?
The events at Queen’s yesterday needed Bill McLaren, as there was as he would say a spot of “Argy-Bargy”.
Just as some great sportsmen live on in peoples’s minds because of what they did, some great commentators live on because of what they said.
A Dunking Biscuit for Coeliacs
I have found that Waitrose’s new gluten-free ginger biscuits dunk well.
A Dunking Biscuit for Coeliacs
My mother and my late wife, C, would be horrified at the picture. Dunking was not for polite society!
But my mother would have been pleased that I’ve stopped biting my nails, which C knew anyway.
Professional Theft – Dutch Footballers at Euro 2012
They have definitely underperformed in this tournament, as they are ranked fourth in the World at the moment.
I wonder what the man on the Amsterdam Omnibus is saying?
It’s All Double Dutch to Me
Some things in International football are always the same. For a start England always lose penalty shoot-outs and various Latin teams are good at faking injuries and being badly tackled.
Another was that The Netherlands always played in orange.
But not tonight!
As Portugal are playing in red and Holland in black with orange trim, from the other side of my room, I thought Portugal had scored first. But it was The Netherlands!
Rinaldo also seems to be trying to get the award for the most over-rated player at the Championship.
Unfortunately for the Dutch, he got very much better!
The Anonymous Widower 