Rasen Goes Ahead!

Well, there is good news and there is bad news!  I will start with the bad news - following torrential rain around the country the jumps fixtures at Wincanton and Hereford have unsurprisingly been abandoned.  The good news is that following an inspection at Market Rasen this morning the meeting goes ahead so we will have some National Hunt racing to look forward to, however I bet the finishes are going to look like they are filmed in slow-motion!  There is also an all-weather flat meeting taking place at Kempton this afternooon.

I watched one race at Hexham yesterday afternoon and it was won by 125/1 chance Gymdoli who managed to get the better of 11/4 favourite Dotties Dilemma.  Winning jockey Barry Keniry who had been on the cold jockeys list for some time was completing a double on the day!  I think it is time to side with my wife and throw the form book out of the window!

In another race at Hexham yesterday, I have to put in a good word for Miss Cathy Walton who won aboard Rupert Bear.  Talk about a confident ride - she held her mount up about 20 lengths off the leaders and came through in Timmy Murphy fashion to win with a bit in hand.  I think the handicapper may have his say, but credit where it is due - a good ride from Miss Walton.

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It was a real shock to see Chelsea sack manager Roberto Di Matteo...having said that, what do people expect?  He only (!) won two trophies with the team last year, one of them being the Champions League!  Football is certainly a fickle sport.  I see that Rafa Benitez is going to take over at Stamford Bridge and he has some job ahead of him.  I have a picture of Rafa on my wall at home from when I met him in the paddock at Aintree before the Grand National.  Apparently plenty of the fans do not want Benitez as their manager - he could be short-term solution until they can persuade Pep Guardiola into taking over...thinking about it, all Chelsea managers seem to be short-term!

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I still cannot believe that Ricky Hatton is making a comeback to boxing on Saturday night in the Manchester Arena with around 20,000 people supporting him.  His team seem to have found an opponent who should not give him too many problems...it is when he steps in the ring with a big hitter that I would be really worried.