Dante Day

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with flat cards from York, Salisbury and Newmarket and jumps fixtures from Perth and Fontwell.  There are no runners from Pond House today, although there is a bit of local interest with David's long standing secretary Gail and her partner Raymond running former inmate Herbert Park in the Hunter Chase at Fontwell at 6.05pm.  We will all be watching with interest...no pressure there!  There are seven races at Fontwell for the Hunter Chase meeting and they only have to put up £15,000 in prize money - I bet that someone is rubbing their hands together.  The other highlight of the day is the Dante at York, one of the most proven Epsom Derby trials, so it should certainly be informative.

I was looking through some interesting statistics yesterday and was fascinated to see that four of the twelve most successful jockeys of all time rode for Martin.  Sir Anthony McCoy, Richard Dunwoody, Peter Scudamore and Timmy Murphy.  All were excellent jockeys in different ways and all had very different personalities.  I will leave it at that!

There were sniffer dogs at York yesterday following the recent trouble at Ascot and Goodwood.  Everything seemed to go alright, although I am not quit sure what good a sniffer dog would do...was he sniffing for drunks before they reached the course?!  Wait until there are a group of them that have had a bit too much and then the trouble will start all over again I'm afraid.

Talk about dropping a clanger yesterday.  I said that I did not fancy the mounts of our jockeys yesterday, so to prove me wrong David Noonan popped up with a 12/1 winner - his 100th career victory, so very well done to him.  He is certainly an improving young rider, especially in a finish - he is looking as strong as anyone these days.

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I found the most expensive car parking I have ever seen yesterday when doing a pick-up from Heathrow.  The problem is that you have to go into the car park to pick up and then they have got you.

I see that the papers are building up the English football team ahead of the forthcoming World Cup.  It is only giving them more to knock down when they lose.  The press are calling them a 'Dream Team' but you know it is only a matter of time before it is all being branded a nightmare.  We all know how the papers work.  Talking of football, my beloved West Ham are trying to get Newcastle and former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez as their next manager.  I certainly wouldn't mind that appointment - I already have a photo of Rafa on my wall from when we saw him at Aintree a few years ago.

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I have recently been reading a book about reverse pyschology - or have I?  Keep smiling...

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