Thursday, June 21, 2007

Royal Ascot - Friday


On the phone last night my roving fashion reporter described many of the ladies' outfits at Ascot this year as 'lovely', 'nice' or 'beautiful'; some of the hats were a 'little over the top' and others just plain 'awful'.

Brilliant - that's exactly my kind of fashion reporting, a complete contrast to some of the verbiage the BBC's James Sherwood came out with on Radio Four this morning. At one point he talked about ladies who 'know how to wear a hat' - and there I was thinking the ladies in question just sat the old titfer on their barnet and proceeded to walk about underneath it.

Giles Smith, picking up on the dapper James Sherwood theme, writes in today's Times, 'The top-hatted Sherwood is taken to talking with his eyes closed, which you have to be fantastically posh to get away with.' I'm not so sure on that one, Giles; most mornings Mrs Tips tells me I was talking in my sleep the night before but I'd hardly describe my upbringing as 'posh' - we thought knives and fork were pieces of jewellery until the age of eight.

Enough of that drivel, let's get on to tomorrow's racing. Nine go to post for the King Edward VIIth Stakes due off at 3.05. The Derby form is primarily represented by Lucarno and Salford Mill. On the book Lucarno is the choice but Salford Mill came from a long way back that day and could be dangerous if ridden closer to the pace. David Elsworth's string are in good form, so Salford Mill is the selection.

In the Coronation Stakes at 3.45 likely favourite Finsceal Beo could be vulnerable after recently running three Group 1 races in three weeks. Darjina has already taken her scalp and gets the vote. Mark Winstanley was very bullish about John Oxx's Arch Swing after her second in the Guineas at Newmarket in May but the horse ran no race whatsoever last time out. I'm prepared to give this filly another chance; she makes some each way appeal at around 14/1.

1 comment:

GeeDee said...

Salford Mill (11/2) ran a disappointing race to finish seventh of the nine runners, although the rain is unlikely to have helped his cause.
On ground that was riding good to soft 7/2 shot Darjina had no answer to Indian Ink's burst at the furlong pole, finishing 6 lengths third. 10/1 chance Arch Swing showed her last run to be wrong finishing a respectable fourth.