Start Of The Sales

I thought that Dell' Arca ran a good race at Cheltenham on Saturday to finish a close fourth in the Pertemps Qualifier.  He was giving weight to the three that finished in front of him and saw the trip out well, staying on in determined fashion.  The trouble is that he runs so many solid races like this that he never gets any respite from the handicapper.  Let's hope Mr Nasty doesn't do anything silly!  Vaniteux ran with credit on his first start for the stable, finishing close behind the minor placings - he looks as though he could do with coming down a few pounds from his current lofty rating of 158.  Katkeau picked up a bit of prize money in the veteran's race at Aintree yesterday, while Aero Majestic was also not discredited in fifth in the novices' hurdle.  I thought all four from the weekend performed well and should be winning races before too long.

There are three meetings taking place this afternoon with flat cards from Leicester and Redcar, while there is also a jumps fixture from Ayr.  I have had a look at today's meetings and I noticed that there is a seller at Redcar over 1m2f for three to five year olds.  I always take great interest in these races to see if there are any potential hurdlers, although there are quite a few others with the same thing on their minds nowadays.

There is a good article in today's Racing Post as Julian Muscat talks to the now retired Sun racing correspondent Claude Duval.  Claude talks about the old rivalries including the one between Martin and David Elsworth - Elsie always called MCP "Drainpipe" although never to his face!  Claude was a great writer for the Sun (if there is such a thing!).  I have known him for years and he used to ghost my table tennis column back in the good old days.

David and Martin are up at Newmarket today for the start of the Horses In Training Sales and I know that a lot of work has been done on the catalogue to source some potential jumpers for the right sort of money.  There are loads of horses going through the ring over the next few days so if you are interested in purchasing a horses, please do get in touch on 01884 840715 or drop us an This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  and they will put you in touch with David at the sales.

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I see that Lewis Hamilton won his fourth world drivers' championship yesterday after finishing ninth in Mexico.  Sir Jackie Stewart won three championships back when the sport was incredibly dangerous, although I notice that he does not include Hamilton in his top ten drivers of all time and has referred to him in the past as a 'ballerina'...do you get the impression he is not a fan?!

What a great success from Justin Rose in the World Golf Championships with five birdies in the back 9 helping him to victory.  Rose said that it was the best back 9 he has ever played - I am not surprised as it picked him up a cool £1.2 million.

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I went to a Pretenders concert at the weekend...it was a tribute act!

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