As I touched on briefly in a previous post, it has been now been disclosed that Geordieland is one of the 12 six-day acceptors of the DFS Doncaster Cup. This will be Jamie Osborne’s colt’s first appearance after ending up third at Royal Ascot.

He will be facing opponents like Godolphin’s Schiaparelli and Askar Tau under the reins of the able Ryan Moore.

In the meantime, I cannot write today without mentioning the horrific news that hit the racing world today. Two apprentice jockeys tragically died today, and two other apprentices ended up injured because of a fire that broke out in a block of flats.

It was the three storey block near Malton in North Yorkshire that caught fire (possibly started deliberately – although its too early to fully determine the cause), where survivors survived after jumping out of their windows to safety.

Emergency services were called in at about 2.15 am after neighbours were awakened by the noise coming from some of the survivors of the blaze. Eyewitnesses said that the incident was both scary and extremely noisy, and that people in the area were devastated.

Our thoughts are with the families of the two unfortunate apprentices who perished in this tragic incident.