Peanuts!

Prize money for today's five meetings (four flat and one jumps card) totals just £114,000 and that really doesn't seem like much to me.  I wonder how much the greedy bookies will take (and make) across those cards?  It would be interesting to know, although it is just one of those things that we are never going to find out about...it is a little bit like MP's expenses (and I'm not talking about Martin Pipe!).

It all seems to be doom and gloom in today's edition of the Racing Post.  Jockey Jason Maguire is facing a long spell on the sidelines after suffering spinal damage in a fall at the weekend, while Ruby Walsh is likely to miss Listowel by a week.  Graham Lee is out with a back injury while Micky Fenton has suffered a small fracture to his shoulders.  How many other sports do you know of where injury is such a part of everyday life?  These footballers don't know they have been born.

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I bet some of the football managers are rubbing their hands together today - they will be hoping that some of the big boys will be coming in to buy their players.  As the transfer deadline approaches they can push the price of their players skywards - I wonder how much it has cost Arsenal with them leaving it so late?

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I was interested to read A P McCoy's words about retaining his jockey's title - asked what it is that keeps him motivated after all these years he replied, "What keeps me motivated?  The same thing since I was first champion jockey - the fear of not being champion.  I worry every day about not being champion jockey."  He really doesn't need to worry about that - he is in a class of his own a will maintain his stranglehold on the title for as long as he wants it.