Millionair At Huntingdon

Following the abandonment of Newcastle's fixture this afternoon due to waterlogging, we are left with three other meetings on the level at Leicester and Wolverhampton and over the sticks at Huntingdon.  Unsurprisingly the going looks like it is going to be pretty testing at the turf meetings and the stable has one runner at Huntingdon.  Weekend Millionair (pictured above winning at Ffos Las last season) has his first start for 159 days in the 2m4 1/2f novices' hurdle and he sets a good standard on his close third in a decent Punchestown contest last time.  He should handle the going and will be partnered by Tom Scudamore.

Quite rightly all of the headlines today centre around champion flat jockey elect Richard Hughes and his wonderful seven-timer at Windsor yesterday afternoon.  I have to say that Hughsie needs to work a bit on his flying dismount as he doesn't score as well on artistic impression as Frankie Dettori, but it was fantastic to see him so elated.  It was a shame that it was an eight race fixture as it means that he can't claim to have gone through the card, although he was only narrowly beaten into third place on his other mount.  Sadly the bookies seem to have managed to get away without losing a fortune despite the accumulator paying over 10,000/1!

Also on the flat I see that jockey Michael Hills is set to retire from the saddle.  I always thought that he was a solid jockey without ever being a great one - if the horse was good enough, then so was Hills.  However, he didn't very often win aboard horses that he wasn't expected to unlike your Lester Piggotts and Kieren Fallons.

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There is a big football match on ITV this evening at 8pm as England take on Poland away from home.  This should be a serious challenge for our boys and I see that plenty of the older England regulars have been recalled so Roy Hodgson is clearly taking nothing for granted.  Ladbrokes have installed England at 21/20 and are the only firm to have them at odds-against - Poland aren't the side they used to be, so I would still advise making a trip to down to your local Ladbrokes and alleviating them of some of their profits!

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The Premier League Snooker match that was to take place in Penzance had had to be cancelled due to the suspension of player Stephen Lee following suspicious betting patterns during a match with John Higgins.  The sport does seem to have been plagued by this sort of trouble in recent years.