Thursday 12th July 2018

Competition won for us and his owners at Uttoxeter on Tuesday, the winning distance was 17 lengths. What the form is worth I’m not sure as the odds-on favourite failed to give his running. You can only beat what’s in front of you though and Competition did it well. The horse deserved his first career win. Competition has been a nice fun purchase for us finishing out of the first three just once in his four starts.

Belgium let us down for the 25-1 vs Croatia World Cup final bet. Belgium had most of the possession but failed to score, a set-piece was their undoing.

What can you say about England, we came up against the first half decent team we’ve played and lost. It’s difficult to argue England had a charmed passage into the semi-final, the route we had will never happen again. I don’t think we played anything better than a mid-table premier league side in the knock stages until Croatia.

The likes of Young, Alli, Sterling & Lingard haven’t done enough. This is where our problem is, midfield. We haven’t got that player who can make things happen. Kyle Walker will never be a centre back and Harry Kane disappeared in the knockout stages. We scored 12 goals in total, just 3 weren’t from a penalty or set-piece.

Everybody would have taken getting to a semi-final before a ball was kicked, it gave the nation some great days and evenings out over the past few weeks. However, a huge opportunity has been missed. When it comes down to it, we’ve fallen at the first hurdle. On the flip side, Harry Maguire & Pickford were excellent from start to finish.

We’ve now got the awful and total pointless 3^rd / 4^th playoff game against Belgium. I’m sure the players would prefer to go on their holidays.

The only saving grace from last night, the 16-1 EW on Croatia to win the thing is guaranteed a nice return. France will likely lift the trophy, but anything can happen in 90 mins.

Great racing today from Newmarket, first day of the July meeting.

Newbury is my point of call for a bet in the 8:00, Mister Ambassador priced at 5-2. This horse is far better than what he showed on debut in the Wood Ditton. Hopefully we’ll see a different effort this evening.

At Newmarket, I’m looking forward to watching Legends Of War in the 2:25. He was impressive on debut and is well thought of. Advertise will likely be hard to beat though, his Ascot form looks very hot.

Mirage Dancer 3:35, things didn’t drop right at Royal Ascot. Ryan Moore back in the saddle is a big plus. Handmaiden 4:10, should have come on for her debut second place. Gabr in the 4:45, a poor prep for Ascot and only just made the race. He's now spot on and should run ok.