Ramses Runs At Chepstow

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Chepstow and Musselburgh (who need to pass a secondary inspection this morning) as well as all-weather flat cards from Newcastle and Lingfield.  David runs Ramses de Teillee (pictured above) in the 2m7½f novices' chase at Chepstow at 2.10pm.  He is already a course and distance winner and finished a close runner-up to a subsequent Grade 3 winner last time out at Fontwell.  He stays very well and with a clear round he should go close under Tom Scudamore.

We welcomed a nice bunch of guys to the yard yesterday morning.  Steve Walsh and his brother Simon and friends Andy and Alan joined us for a tour of the stable and morning on the gallops followed by an afternoon's racing at Wincanton.  They won the day at an auction at Countryside Alliance day at Cheltenham back in November.  They are real racing fanatics and you never know, perhaps they will join the Pond House team at some point?  In the meantime, I hope we will catch up with them at the races again soon.

I was interested to see that Racing Post reporter Tom Kerr agrees with me with regard to drawing a new audience to the racecourse.  He suggests that midweek meetings should offer a discounted rate or free admission.  If we don't begin to attract younger racegoers, the sport will be in a lot more trouble than it already is.  Free admission would not be the end of the world to the racecourse - I am sure more money would be spent over the bar on food and drink if punters didn't have to pay to go in.  There also needs to be a reduction in these ridiculous two runner races - who is going to pay to go to see that?!

There is an excellent piece in today's Racing Post about the late, great Sir Henry Cecil.  I was very lucky to be invited to Warren Place with Martin many years ago.  Henry dismissed all of his staff for the day and proceeded to cook a meal for Martin and myself before we sat down and talked about all the great days and jockeys from years gone by.  It would have made a fascinating television interview.  It was a weekend I will never forget - Sir Henry was a stable genius in every sense of the word.

British ladies number one tennis player Johanna Konta was upbeat after losing in the Australian Open to Bernarda Perra 6-4, 7-5.  Perra is ranked 123 in the world so it baffles me how she can remain upbeat after losing to a player that she should have wiped the floor with.  I remember from my table tennis days, I certainly wouldn't have been satisfied with such a defeat.

There is a good championship football match on tonight between Derby and Bristol City.  There is only two places between them in the league and I will be having a little bit on Derby at 11/10 - the coverage is on Sky...it looks like Mrs Barnes is out of luck with the soaps tonight!

Sign in a restaurant window "Eat now, pay waiter!"  Have a nice day...

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