Winter Strikes Again

There are six meetings taking place this afternoon with flat cards from Goodwood, Thirsk, Newmarket, Bath and Musselburgh while there is also a jumps meeting from Bangor.  Stable jockey Tom Scudamore has picked up a decent looking outside ride in the 4.20pm race - let's hope that he is lucky.  Meanwhile, the Goodwood card looks like an absolute cracker with the big race of the day the five furlongs King George Stakes at 3.35pm.  It could be a Profitable day...that is the name of the horse!  The four year old has been in great form and the forecast soft ground should help Profitable.

I had to smile to myself when I was listening to the so called experts saying that Winter would not get the longer trip on the ground in the Nassau Stakes yesterday.  Well, she saw it out well to land her fourth successive Group One contest...what a great filly.

There is another good card from Galway today and I always have a look through to see what runners Tony Martin has, especially if they have been well supported.  It is not very often that they leave the money in the bookies' satchel.

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I did my money last night on England's lady footballers...that will teach me!  They were beaten 3-0 by Holland even though we seemed to have more chances - in fairness our defence looked terrible.

Vladimir Klitschko has retired from boxing with a record of 64 wins from 69 fights - not bad at all.  Even so, you couldn't put him up there with the great heavyweights of the past such as Al, Frazier or Foreman - I think they would have all knocked him out.  I wonder if he will be able to stay retired?  That seems to be the hardest part about being a boxer these days, having the ability to call it a day.

Andy Murray continues to struggle with the hip injury that he carried through Wimbledon as he withdrew from another tournament, this time in Montreal.  Hopefully he will be able to overcome it sooner rather than later.

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Mrs Barnes said that I am idiot who can't do the simplest of things right...so I packed her bags and left!

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