Happy Birthday Mrs Barnes!

There is a bumper day of action ahead with no less than six meetings taking place including flat fixtures from Brighton, Carlisle, Goodwood, Haydock and Wolverhampton while there is also a jumps card from Stratford, although this is a hunter chase meeting.  We have had two days of torrential rain down here in the west country and if that has been replicated throughout the rest of the country, keep an eye on the going as it is bound to have eased considerably.  Talking of the hunter chase fixture, I still cannot believe that they allow professional trainers to compete in these events - where else do you hear of professionals taking on amateurs on a level playing field?

There are no runners from Pond House this afternoon, although I see there is a horse running today called Parliamentarian...now there is a topical tip!  It contests the 7.40pm race at Goodwood this evening so if you like a coincidence bet this could be the one for you.

I was talking about the general election with one of my betting shop mates yesterday and I told him it could end up being a hung Parliament.  He is quite quick and immediately responded by saying that quite a few of them should be hung!  Just my sort of sense of humour.

Why on earth would you dump your leading goal scorer?  That is just what reigning champions Chelsea have done letting go of Diego Costa...by text!  I know he is not everybody's cup of tea but he is some player - I wouldn't be at all surprised if the manager was too scared to do it face to face!  It looks as though he could be on his way back to his old club Atletico Madrid.  In actual fact, Costa already has a club...it is a night club built on the back of his house.  He has a mixing deck, strobe lighting and a smoke machine...absolutely mad as a March hare!

What a win for Sri Lanka over India yesterday in the Champions Trophy cricket.  They scored 322 with 8 balls to spare and if they beat Pakistan on Monday it will see them into the semi-finals of the competition.

*****

Mrs Barnes left me because of my obsession with Scrabble.  Obsession is eleven points!  I had better be careful, it is her birthday today and she has a lot to put up with!

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