Five Flat Fixtures

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with all of the action coming on the level from Ascot, Haydock, Newcastle, Kempton and Musselburgh.  Unsurprisingly there are no runners from Pond House today, although whilst looking through the cards I did notice a race at Newcastle called the "Pipeline Services handicap"...I wonder why I noticed that race?!

There were a couple of worrying incidents at Sedgefield yesterday when two horses ducked out the wrong side of the "H" marker that denotes the hurdles course.  Both James Corbett and Cath Walton were unseated and this is something that could do with being looked into before anything more serious happens.

I see that it is Martin Foster's birthday today.  Martin was champion conditional jockey for MCP in 1990 - he was also a good boxer so obviously I didn't argue with Foster very often!  When I saw that it was his 47th birthday it made me feel old (which I'm not, obviously!).

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It looks as though the final cricket test match between England and the West Indies is going to be a thriller with 14 wickets falling on day one alone.  It looks as though it is a real bowlers wicket with the ball moving about all over the place.  The West Indies were bowled out for 123 with Ben Stokes producing a great spell of bowling to take six wickets.  England stuttered to 46 for 4 at the close of play - I thought that with rain forecast it may result in a draw but it would appear that neither team can bat!

I see that Wayne Rooney has been moaning about the number of holidays that his wife Coleen has each year.  I don't know what he is talking about - she has only had 8 so far this year and now she is planning her regular trip away in October with her three sons to Dubai (as that is what all the wag's do during half term) .  Wayne has three matches during that period so won't be able to join her - it's a tough life being a wag.  If he wants to keep hold of her though, he had better wind his neck in and behave himself!

The real action is between Derby and Hull tonight on Sky and as Hull are yet to win away from home, I think I will be having a little wager on Derby at evens.

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Mrs Barnes and I often laugh about how competitive we are...but I always laugh more!  Have a nice day...

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