Royal Ascot, part three

No review of Royal Ascot is complete without reference to the BBC coverage. It took me two or three decades to learn to appreciate the BBC's contribution to the meeting to its full extent, but the turning point came for me a couple of years ago when I read James Underwood's opinion that the BBC treats Royal Ascot as if it were "the white man's Notting Hill Carnival". Since reading that, I've really learned to enter into the whole off-the-wall spirit of the programmes, and to savour every piece of nonsense. And no aspect is more to be savoured than the contributions of the splendid James Sherwood. One can understand why female racegoers might quake when they see him plus camera crew approaching - there is an unconfirmed rumour that Gemma found herself a victim of his viper's tongue on Tuesday, but as I didn't see the entire programme I can neither confirm nor deny that - but, for everyone other than the people whom he is discussing, his words are a delight. Of the plethora of brahmae today, here are two of my favourites "Probably better for the Riviera than for Royal Ascot - but you'd probably cut quite a dash in the Silver Ring wearing it", and "the campest pirate on the high seas". Those two gems were both prompted by models on the cat-walk (every racecourse should have one), down which we had enjoyed the delightful sight of Willie Carson and Ronnie Corbett promenading together a couple of days previously. This is all just so good. Even seasoned racing professionals such as Claire Balding and Willie Carson rise to the occasion and realise that this show is about much more than mere racing: when telling us that Takeover Target (pictured above with his owner/trainer, plus Jose Corrales, with Scenic Blast and one of the American Royal Ascot raiders looking on) has been scratched from tomorrow's Golden Jubilee, rather than then tell us why - which was obviously the most important piece of information at that point - they instead moved straight onto a series of gags about Russell Crowe and the movie, thus ensuring that (one would hope) the entire TV audience got up from their seats in front of the television to turn on the internet to find out what had gone wrong. It's great: under normal circumstances I'd opt for the specialist racing coverage (ATR or Racing UK) over the generalised, but for Royal Ascot - no way!

I've just watched Ghanaati's excellent win in the Coronation Stakes under one of my favourite jockeys, Richard Hills. This was very special, not just for the fact that this is yet another Group One win for the very sporting Sheikh Hamdam by a home-bred descending from Height Of Fashion, but also because it is yet another good win which Barry Hills, a man whose professionalism and high standards are a lesson to us all, has trained this season despite his on-going major health worries. And on the subject of the excellent Hills stable, we must give further riding honours to one-time Barry Hills apprentice Darryll Holland, who had rides in five of the six races at Musselburgh last night and won on all five. They were all short prices, hence the five-time being "only" something like 63/1, but even so that's a typically very good effort by a very good jockey.