Grands Crus Parades

There are just two meetings on this afternoon at Bath on the flat and a jumps card at Kempton.  It is good to see David doing his bit to promote racing - he is up at Kempton this afternoon with a couple of runners, but he will also be conducting a questions and answers session in the paddock at 1.15pm as part of a racing forum.  We will also be parading Grands Crus (pictured above), who was most impressive when winning the Grade One Feltham Novices' Chase at the track last season on Boxing Day.  My Brother Sylvest and Laustra Bad are our runners today and will both be ridden by Tom Scudamore.

Tomorrow it is Moorcroft Charity Day at Plumpton where they also host the Josh Gifford Memorial Chase.  As part of the fundraising one of the auction lots is a riding lesson from Josh's Olympic medal winner Tina Cook - I bet that makes a few quid (and rightly so).  It was Willie Carson's last appearance on BBC television as a racing pundit yesterday afternoon.  Willie stands on a special box so that he can talk with Clare Balding face to face...I bet his box would attract a few bids if it ever went to auction!

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I was fascinated to read some of the figures about the amazing Frankel...his earnings against the time of his races equated to £114,022.79 per minute or £1,900.73 per second!  I know it is difficult to believe but that is more than most of our professional footballers earn and just think, all Frankel wants at the end of the day is a bowl of oats, while footballers...I had better stop there!

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I had to laugh when I saw that the horse Fat Gary was a non-runner yesterday.  Better still was the reason given for his non-participation - he hadn't eaten up!  His trainer obviously has a great sense of humour.