Spectator Life

The Coral Stewards’ Cup has to be one of the toughest handicaps of the year to solve and tomorrow’s running (Goodwood, 3.35 p.m.) is as open as they come, with a maximum field of 28 runners due to line up for this downhill cavalry charge over six furlongs. The most likely winner is arguably Two Tribes, who won this race last year and who ran such a top prep race for this contest just six days ago when second in the Moet & Chandon International Handicap at Ascot. However, the chances of Two Tribes winning are fairly obvious and he is now a single-figure price. Far Above Dream has a big shout too from stall 23 but he is also a single-figure price and the likely favourite.

Sometimes the obvious answer is the right one. And so it is with Lord’s versus the Oval. There’s a certain type of cricket fan who likes to point out that they prefer the south London ground, implying that Lord’s is just too famous, too touristy, not ‘real’ enough. If you’re interested in the actual play, goes the theory, if you’re properly gripped by how much turn the left-arm spinner will get in the second innings, then the Oval’s the place for you. Leave that poncey museum in NW8 to the arrivistes, the sort who can recite Blowers’s one-man show word-for-word but haven’t got a clue how Derbyshire’s seconds did last week.  The Ovaltinies are wrong, but for the opposite reason to the one they think.

Both favourites in the two major races at Ascot tomorrow are going to take a lot of beating if running up to their best form. At the odds on offer, however, neither makes any appeal as a good bet but it is no easy task finding a horse to beat them. The French raider Calandagan will try to win the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (3.35 p.m.) for a second successive year. He needed to be both talented and courageous to wear down the Andrew Balding-trained Kalpana in this race 12 months ago and he will be in his element on the fast ground tomorrow. However, odds of no bigger than 13-8 look skinny enough given the quality of the opposition in this nine-runner Grade 1 contest over a mile and a half.

There is something intimidating about sporting royalty in the stands. At many great clubs, retired legends seem almost gargoyle-like, perched high above the pitch, judging those sent to inherit their legacy. Manchester United have long played beneath the watchful gaze of Sir Alex Ferguson; other clubs have their own ghosts. Spain’s World Cup triumph offered a different spectacle. As the Spanish greats of the past – from David Villa to Iker Casillas – watched Lamine Yamal, Rodri and co defeat reigning champions Argentina, they resembled something more saintly; a reassuring reminder of Spanish supremacy. It was a far cry from the shaking head of Ronaldo watching yet another Brazilian disappointment or protestations of England’s World Cup alumni.

This weekend’s racing makes no appeal betting wise and so I am instead going to put up three ante-post bets in the hope of landing a big-priced winner for the column over the next month or so. The first bet is in Europe’s richest handicap on the flat, the Sky Bet Ebor Handicap at York on 22 August. This is a race in which Irish maestro Willie Mullins, who won the contest last year with Ethical Diamond, has no less than ten entries. Mullins keeps his cards so close to his chest that I wouldn’t want to bet on which of his horses will run let alone which might win the race. Instead, I prefer the chances of an exposed British trained-runner in DAIQUIRI BAY.

It is so-called ‘Super Saturday’ tomorrow with high-class racing at Newmarket, York and Ascot, and that’s good news for some of the lesser-known jockeys as it means they get an opportunity to ride fancied horses in some of the biggest races. That’s because the likes of Ryan Moore, Oisin Murphy, William Buick, Tom Marquand and Billy Loughnane can only be at one meeting at any one time. Rob Hornby is a hugely talented jockey but he often has to play understudy to Oisin Murphy when it comes to riding trainer Andrew Balding’s best horses. I am hoping Hornby can ride a winner tomorrow when he is reunited with MISS ATTITUDE in the John Smith’s City Walls Stakes (York, 3.12 p.m.).

Two hours and 17 minutes after arriving at Wimbledon, I realise I hate tennis. Hate it? I loathe it. All ‘40-love’ jargon and thwack thwack of a ball. It’s football without the pack mentality. Badminton with better PR.   ‘Why are you even here then?’ asks an Argentinian tennis agent when I say this by the players’ lounge. ‘This is the oldest tournament in the world! It’s the best!’ He’s right. He’s an international expert so of course he’s right. Even if all his singles players were knocked out by day three.  But, of course, that’s exactly why I’m here.

Football is fond of superlatives. Before this World Cup, column inches dwelt on its excess. Tickets were the priciest ever; there would be the most matches, the most teams, the most players. Amid the noise, many adopted that phrase favoured by Sunday League managers after a 9-0 drubbing: all we wanted was for football to be ‘the real winner’. Let the games begin.  We have been vindicated. The football has delivered and the hyperbole has quietened into background babble. But what could not have been expected was just how good it has been. Ahead of the tournament, naysayers implied it was already a damp squib. Fifa’s greed in expanding the number of participants to 48 from 32 would see each mismatch become a farce. England would sweep past DR Congo.

There are signs: a Wimbledon towel in the downstairs loo. Another, faded, in a child’s swimming bag. Maybe a Links of London strawberry charm lingering in the jewellery box. All not-that-subtle clues of a hazy student summer spent working at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.  For two weeks swathes of impossibly well-spoken university students (Edinburgh, Durham, Bristol, Newcastle…) descend on Wimbledon to serve up Pimm’s, flog tennis racquet-shaped key rings, escort players – and clean loos. It’s the summer job to trump all summer jobs.

Some out-of-form sprinters head the market at Sandown tomorrow for the Group 3 Coral Charge (1.50 p.m.). If the likes of Asfoora, Rumstar and Shagraan return to form, they will be tough to beat, but that’s quite a big 'if' given their lacklustre recent racetrack performances. On the face of it, trainer Jack Channon’s GETREADYTORUMBLE also has moderate form this season but he has not had much luck in running in two of his last three starts. Notably, last time out, he reared leaving the stalls, losing several lengths, in the Group 1 King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Epic figures leave epic gaps when they retire. The generations that follow are doomed to be compared to past heroes by nostalgic fans. So it is with Roger Federer. Novak Djokovic might be the GOAT (greatest of all time, to use the phrase du jour) in terms of sheer numerical achievement. But tennis is art, not science. Ballet, not bookkeeping. For the aesthetes among us who drink in the sight of on-court grace like champagne, Federer will always be number one.  To answer why, you don’t need words, though heaven knows enough have been written about the grace of Rog. (David Foster Wallace famously called watching the Swiss savant ‘a religious experience’). Click on any clip and watch Fed glide on the court, near-supernatural in his poise.

More often than not, controversy over liquid refreshment at a football World Cup focuses on the unsavoury antics of England's travelling support. But, in the US these past two weeks, the focus has been less on the booze and more on the boos that have greeted that dreaded moment, roughly at the midpoint of each half, when play must stop for a 'hydration break'.  These hiatuses were introduced, as so many Fifa initiatives are, with all the good will in the world. The idea was that when the temperature tops 32°C, the players should get a chance to take a short break to get extra fluids on board for fear of dehydration.

Newcastle stages some quality all-weather racing this weekend, the highlight of which is tomorrow’s JenningsBet Northumberland Plate (3.15 p.m.). As I feared in last week’s column, my main fancy for the race has not made the “cut” and is instead in the consolation race. Cerulean Bay was one of the many eyecatchers at Royal Ascot despite being out of the places There are two main reasons why the quality of this meeting, run on an artificial Tapeta surface, is particularly high this year. Firstly, the generous level of prize money – the Plate, for example, is worth more than £77,000 to winning connections. Secondly, a lot of trainers whose horses prefer soft ground are observing the current heatwave and concluding a race on the all-weather is better than no run at all.

In my more romantic moments, standing at Hellfire Corner, in the drizzly shadow of engine houses and Carn Brea, watching Redruth play rugby, I think of Richard Burton’s line: ‘I grew up among heroes who went down the pit, who played rugby, told stories, sang songs of war.’   Last week Burton’s Celtic cousins across the water from South Wales won their fifth rugby County Championship in a decade, as Cornwall saw off Lancashire with a 39-24 victory at Twickenham. As with Wales, rugby is how Cornwall expresses its true self. It may not be the picture postcard version, but if anything evokes the spirit of Cornwall; the mining, the granite, and the Methodism, it is our rugby team.

There is something luxurious about the group stage of a World Cup. Gone is the waiting. Gone the fill-inch columns about arcane details of squad selection. Gone the faux-humanitarian pearl-clutching about global sport events being a massive waste of time and money. Gone the moaning about the scheduling. Just stay up late; it’s actually quite fun. For now, here we are, with the glorious, technicolour feast. Goals left, right and centre. None of the quotidian misery of a goalless draw on a rainy Tuesday night in Stoke. Now it is the sun-soaked rush of national anthems, heroes, villains and  – most of all – a goal fest aided by defences that barely know each other from Adam. Matches that you’d never before think twice about – Uzbekistan vs Colombia at 3 a.m.

Newmarket handler James Tate has his string in sparkling form and he doesn’t waste bullets by sending horses to Royal Ascot unless they have a chance of winning. Tate has enjoyed six winners from 19 runners over the past fortnight for a winning strike rate of 32 per cent. His only runner so far this week at Royal Ascot, Blue Rc, was second in the Royal Hunt Cup at 28-1 to a well-handicapped horse in Rogue Diplomat. Tate doesn’t waste bullets by sending horses to Royal Ascot unless they have a chance of winning I think his horse, DARN HOT GALLOP has a big chance today of winning the Sandringham Stakes (5 p.m.). She is three wins from four races, her only defeat coming when she was outclassed in the Betfred 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket in early May.

Royal Ascot gets underway at 2.30 p.m. today with the Queen Anne Stakes, a fascinating Group 1 race over the straight mile. DOCKLANDS did this column a good turn this time last year when winning this contest after being put up at 25-1. Although he is not going to be anything like those odds this time, I am going to stay loyal to this likeable six-year-old. Admittedly this year’s contest is a hotter event than a year ago and the likes of Notable Speech, Opera Ballo and More Thunder are officially rated superior to trainer Harry Eustace’s course specialist. However, Docklands overcame both a slow start and his rider dropping his whip in last year’s race, and he comes into the meeting in good form.

Race meetings at courses including York, Sandown and Chester offer decent fare for horse racing enthusiasts this weekend but many will already be looking forward to Royal Ascot’s five-day extravaganza beginning on Tuesday. York, in particular, stages some competitive handicaps tomorrow including the 22-runner Churchill Tyres Supporting Macmillan Sprint Handicap (3.35 p.m.) over a distance of six furlongs. Ed Walker’s Golden Brown, who is a nice ride for an apprentice, looks overpriced for this contest. The three-year-old gelding has been slowly getting better with racing, finally scoring on his ninth run when victorious at Salisbury last month from a poor draw.

With the modern-day racehorse increasingly bred for speed, it is likely that several of tomorrow’s runners at Epsom in the Betfred Derby (4 p.m.) will not truly stay the race distance of a mile and a half. The fact that this year’s contest is going to be run with plenty of cut in the ground means that, unless there is an unusually slow pace, it will take a proper three-year-old staying colt to win this prestigious Grade 1 race. After his 1-2-3 in the French Derby last weekend, Irish maestro Aidan O’Brien is the likeliest trainer to win tomorrow’s Classic with one of his four runners, but most realistically with either Benvenuto Cellini or Pierre Bonnard.