One Runner At Perth

Today there are four meetings taking place in this country, with three on the flat at Pontefract, Wolverhampton and Newmarket as well as a jumps card up at Perth.  The stable has had one run at the Scottish track, The Tracey Shuffle who makes his chasing debut this afternoon.  It looks to be quite a competitive contest as he takes on formerly decent hurdler, Irish challenger Carlito Brigante.  If it were a handicap based on their hurdles form we would be receiving more than the 7lbs we get today, although jumping is the name of the game and the Irish horse has been known to throw in the odd poor effort.

Today there are four meetings taking place in this country, with three on the flat at Pontefract, Wolverhampton and Newmarket as well as a jumps card up at Perth.  The stable has had one run at the Scottish track, The Tracey Shuffle who makes his chasing debut this afternoon.  It looks to be quite a competitive contest as he takes on formerly decent hurdler, Irish challenger Carlito Brigante.  If it were a handicap based on their hurdles form we would be receiving more than the 7lbs we get today, although jumping is the name of the game and the Irish horse has been known to throw in the odd poor effort.

I have a couple more pictures to bring you from the gallops this morning.  This time they are of new recruit and decent bumper performer Knight Pass who was working in company with good ex-flat performer Investissement who was third in last year's Ebor - they both worked well within themselves.  I also managed to grab a picture of Vergrigio and staying chaser Alderluck in action on the gallops.

  
Above left: (l-r) Knight Pass and Investissement and right: (l-r) Vergrigio and Alderluck on the gallops

What a surprise...it has been announced that there are going to be more race fixtures in 2013 - let's just hope that they can find more prize money!  To many the idea of streamlining the fixtures list is a good prospect, but obviously not to the powers that be.  I'm all for plenty of racing, but you cannot expect owners and trainers to keep competing for peanuts so there needs to be adequate funding, the question has to be - where is the additional money coming from?  Already it is getting to the stage where owners are barely covering their expenses if they win and that cannot go on so how are more fixtures going to help?  There is also going to be a reduction in the number of novice chases on the program, so effectively the better novices' will be taking each other on before they have obtained much experience...sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

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I see that it is sports presenter John Inverdale's 55th birthday today - it says that he was the co-owner of Make A Stand...at least he was until I claimed him at Leicester (although MCP says that he claimed him!).  When Martin offered to sell a share back to John, he didn't accept...of course Make A Stand went on to win the Tote Gold Trophy, Lanzarote and Champion Hurdle to name but a few.  I bet that John has had his leg pulled more than once in the intervening years!  Many happy returns of the day.

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Manchester United won their Capital One Cup match last night and they now travel to play Chelsea in the next round - that should be some match, although it will be interesting to see how many of their first team will play.

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There is only one day to go until the start of the Ryder Cup and I can't wait.  I have reserved my chair and banned my wife from the television for the next few days!  I am sure my son Lester, who is a scratch golfer himself will give me all the support I need!