Racing’s early start provides a boost for England’s Women’s World Cup send-off

It’s the last game on home soil before the Lionesses jet off to Australia and New Zealand for the Women’s World Cup which starts on Thursday, July 20.

And our golden girls, who brought football home by winning the European Championship last summer, are now so popular that Saturday’s huge racing double-header at Newcastle and Newmarket will start in the morning and finish before the big game kicks off so the gee-gees can be featured on ITV’s flagship channel.

Switching the Flat meetings to ITV4 is not possible because it is hosting the Tour de France – featuring sprint hero Mark Cavendish for the final time – for the next three weeks and the alternative was for some big races to be hidden away in the relative obscurity of ITV3.

Make no mistake, the Northumberland Plate meeting at Newcastle and the top Criterion Stakes card at Newmarket are huge events on the racing calendar.

So a huge huzzah to all concerned for working together and following the precedent set five years ago when the meetings were moved to avoid a clash with the men’s World Cup in Russia.

It also means punters can enjoy the best of both worlds, taking in all the action without having to switch channels on a regular basis.

They can cheer on England to beat Portugal by more than two goals at 8/5 with Betfred after watching Zoffee take the Northumberland Plate at 8/1 with Sky Bet.

Punters can also put their stakes on Witch Hunter, a 50/1 winner when beating 28 rivals in the Buckingham Palace cavalry charge at Royal Ascot, at 10/1 with Bet Victor for the Criterion.

• Wout Van Aert strongly appeals at 7/2 with Betfair to win the points classification at the Tour de France.

• Kent, Surrey and Durham form a lovely treble in the latest round of T20 Blast matches.

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