SITES FOR SORE EYES (SADLY WE DID NOT FEATURE)

           

Digital platforms grow in popularity and provide widening international coverage of events such as Royal Ascot.

A few decades ago The Sporting Life was the sole almanac on the Royal Meeting - and was for 139 years until its closure in 1998 - but the name lives on (more or less) at www.sportinglife.com. It's 'star columnist' is Richard Fahey, absent from Royal Ascot today, but lamenting "seconditis" with the horses he ran earlier in the week.

Donn McLean, the site's Irish expert, gives a vote of sorts to Slade Power in today's Diamond Jubilee Stakes, writing: "He is a big price, and he may just be outclassed, but he may not be." Make of that what you will.

Through its website the New York Times - www.nytimes.com - has been taking considerable interest  in the Royal Meeting, or should that be, Animal Kingdom's participation at the event. A lengthy preview of his chances in Tuesday's Queen Anne Stakes was followed by a lengthy appraisal of his defeat, with reporter Joe Drape writing that The Queen's carriage procession made the course look like an escalator. 'Twenty minutes later, however, it was apparent how draining that lush, postcard-perfect racecourse actually was,' noted Drape.

It is a pity the NY Times ignores No Nay Never's victory in the Norfolk Stakes on Thursday, for this was trainer Wesley Ward's third success at the Royal Meeting, proving US trainers can make the long journey and go home with spoils. Similarly www.sportingpost.co.za a leading South African sports site with plenty of racing coverage and a preview of the Royal Mseeting, has yet to pen a line on Shea Shea's fine second in Tuesday's King's Stand Stakes.

America's Daily Racing Form - www.drf.com - does pick up on the US colt's win, and in a number of articles on Royal Ascot includes a preview of today's Diamond Jubilee Stakes in which Marcus Hersh writes the race has 'drawn no horses remotely as interesting as the hulking, undefeated Australian mare [Black Caviar]'.

Having lost the rights to screen Royal Ascot it is perhaps not surprising that www.bbc.co.uk restricts racing to a brief headline on its sport home page,  but click on it and you find various reports from Frank Keogh and an opportunity to hear John Hunt's high-octane commentary of Estimate's Gold Cup victory, a moment of racing greatness.

It is perhaps a sign of its importance that news.sky.com makes the filly's win its sole mention of racing action at the Royal Meeting, and while uk.reuters.com also keeps the story live it includes an analysis of the racecourse's policy on 'fashion faux pas'. www.cnn.com also picks up on the 'strict protocol' by reminding surfers of the famous moment in the 1964 film My Fair Lady, when Eliza Doolittle, played by Audrey Hepburn, forgets her manners and cries out: 'C'mon Dover! Move yer bloomin' arse'.

Given that Channel 4 is giving fabulous coverage to the fixture - and showing six races every day - it is disappointing the meeting fails to make the home page of www.channel4.com making way for the pulling power of Davina McCall and her Million Pound Drop Live. However, go to

www.racing.channel4.com, which is the home of Channel 4 Racing on the net, and you open up a wealth of material and film from the week. Aficionados will wonder why a shot of jump jockey Ruby Walsh adorns the splash page, but it is Queen Alexandra Stakes day.

In terms of international competitors the Royal Meeting is the best in Britain, if not Europe, although a lack of runners from Hong Kong this year may explain why the most recent related article on www.scmp.com - website for the South China Morning Post - dates back to May 28 when local trainer John Moore announced Time After Time would be a non-runner.

www.theage.com.au is far more active, and even concedes 'Australian hopes flop at Royal Ascot', a reference to day-one defeats for Shamexpress and Animal Kingdom - the latter may be an American, but part owners the Messara family are from Down Under. Not that the Aussies have played all their cards, and Chris Roots has penned an interesting interview with John O'Shea, trainer of Sea Siren who runs in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes. Those who believe the Melbourne Cup is the holy grail for Australians should heed O'Shea's words when he says a victory today would match one at Flemington. "It is that big," he tells Roots.