What a fabulous months Flat Racing June provided. It all started at Epsom for the Derby meeting when Johnny Murtagh gave Soldier of Fortune an excellent ride to win the Coronation Cup. On the same day Look Here was a very good winner of the Oaks for Ralph Beckett and Seb Sanders. In the Derby New Approach’s chance looked to have gone after about three furlongs by the way he was pulling for his head but he fairly flew up the Epsom straight under a powerful ride from Kevin Manning. A tremendous performance and lets hope we see him on the racecourse again.

Royal Ascot belonged to Aidan O’Brien and Johnny Murtagh with six winners which included Haradasun, Henrythenavigator, Duke of Marmalade and Yeats. Yeats looked stronger than ever in winning his third Ascot Gold Cup. His natural replacement looks to be Septimus who reappeared at the Curragh last Saturday in the Attheraces Curragh Cup. However Honolulu showed that he could also go for the top staying honours when putting up a great staying performance in the Queen Alexandra Stakes. He clearly demonstrated that the step up in trip was exactly what he has been crying out for.

Lush Lashes was an easy winner of the Coronation Stakes over one mile. She seems another classy inmate of the Jim Bolger yard. Her next race could be in the Irish Oaks over one and a half miles. Majestic Roi ran a nice race in finishing fourth carrying a Group 1 penalty in the Windsor Forest Stakes. She could now be going for the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket next week.

Sakhee’s Secret ran a stinker in the Golden Jubilee Stakes and was clearly not suited by the over watered ground. This was reminiscent of his performance at Haydock last autumn on similar ground. Difficult to understand why connections bothered to run him. Kingsgate Native was a good winner of this race and will now go for the July Cup at Newmarket where he will have every chance. Ravens Pass would be an interesting runner in this race if allowed to take his chance.

As good as Aidan O’Brien’s feat of training six winners at Royal Ascot was, it still does not beat Vincent O’Briens seven winners (from eight runners) at Royal Ascot in 1975.

Another brilliant trainer from Ireland is Tony Martin. His Arc Bleu won the Northumberland Plate at Newcastle. In a rough race he was well ridden by Adrian Nicholls. Arc Bleu was initially only a reserve for this race and did not get his chance until Friday. He was promptly made antepost favourite for the race. I bet those who took a short price were a bit sick of the starting return of 14/1 !

On Sunday in France Youmzain beat a high class field in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud. The strong early pace set for Soldier of Fortune suited him better. He was intelligently ridden by Richard Hughes who got first run on the field, thereby reversing Coronation Cup places with Soldier of Fortune.

The Irish Derby also run on Sunday was a muddling affair. Alessandro Volta caused all manner of problems by swerving away from the whip in the straight. The winner, Frozen Fire, who was affected along with Curtain Call, Casual Conquest and Tartan Bearer clearly had the best turn of foot to get him home. At Epsom Frozen Fire and Curtain Call were both looked after by their jockeys Mick Kinane and Jamie Spencer when their chances had gone through not acting on the course. This obviously helped their chances on Sunday. Tartan Bearer looked as though he had not completely recovered from his hard race at Epsom. After all he had only just beaten Frozen Fire in the Dante at York.

On Sunday evening Spain deservedly won the European Championship. They played the game as it should be played. It was thoroughly entertaining and the score line of 1-0 could so easily have been 5-0. It was a bit like watching Ipswich at Portman Road last season !

The month ended on Monday evening with a superb performance by Andy Murray at Wimbledon. He looked as though he was going out in three straight sets but fought back for a memorable victory which sees him into the quarter finals on Wednesday against Nadal.

For all your runners and riders and jockey’s colours click on sporting life.