Since winning the Nunthorpe, I’ve always maintained that Mecca’s Angel would win tomorrow’s Prix De L’Abbaye – providing the ground and draw were kind to her.

Well, she’s drawn 19 of 20 and the ground is drying out by the minute, meaning conditions in Paris are far from ideal for her.

This was always the target since that great day at York, as invariably the ground is soft at Longchamp and there aren’t any other top-level five-furlong sprints.

Our frustration has been compounded by the fact that the Abbaye is now one of the later races on the card, which means that there won’t be any dew in the ground by the time the race is run at 4.40pm, French time.

The cards are stacked against us and I’d say she’s not 100 per cent certain to run despite Mecca having already arrived there. Michael Dods will be at the track today to have a closer look.

All the top Group One sprinters, such as Sole Power, Muthmir, Move In Time and Goldream, are lining up as you’d expect. There is a lot of speed on the near side which makes it harder to get to the action from my outside draw. As you saw at York, there is only one way to ride her and that’s to go forward early.

She won over the course and distance in May when drawn 11 of 12, so has shown she can overcome a poor draw, and is absolutely bouncing at home. She couldn’t be better and I would have been extremely confident.

Goldream is the one I’d really fear. He’ll love the ground and is mightily consistent so should be in the frame at a nice enough price around 10-1.

The Abbaye is run immediately after the Arc and I really hope Treve becomes the first horse to win the race three times. She is a wonderful mare who is in the form of her life, having hacked up in the Vermeille.

She comes into this year’s Arc on the crest of a wave compared to last season when she had been beaten three times before coming good in the race that mattered.

I’m at Redcar today and have a decent enough chance on Haley Bop in the feature totepool Two-Year-Old Trophy.

She won over course and distance before hacking up at Hamilton and Mark Johnston’s horses continue to run well. She should be in the first five.

I don't have any obvious chances but it’s one of those days when any one of my six rides could win. The most likely winner could be Fang, who has been running in some decent maidens, including when a two-length second to Shalaa.

I wasn’t surprised when I heard drunks had found their way into the weighing room at Southwell and ended up clocking poor Aidan Coleman.

Out of all the places on the racecourse, security should be tightest in the weighing room. However, over the years I’ve seen unauthorised people coming in and then you also get the idiots who’ve drunk too much and lost money, and need a jockey to blame.

Hopefully, this incident will be the catalyst to step up security at racecourses’ weighing rooms.

Finally, I don’t really understand what’s going on at Yarmouth. It’s always been a great track to ride and its location makes it a popular choice with Newmarket trainers. But now I’ve read they’ve been forced to close the season early after further issues with the course.

Clearly they are having problems with the turf. You think in this day and age it can’t be too hard to provide good racing ground.

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