Two Runners Today

  
Well, following yet more rain even the point-to-point was called off yesterday leaving us with no racing under rules or between the flags.  Fortunately there is better news today with Kempton and Ludlow both going ahead and the stable has a couple of runners at the latter meeting.  My Brother Sylvest (pictured above) participates in the two mile handicap chase - our six year old has run creditably in a couple of novices' events and will be partnered by Conor O'Farrell this afternoon.  Darcey Diva is our other runner and she participates in the bumper - she ran well on her racecourse debut when second at Wincanton and hopefully can build on that today under Kieron Edgar.

There will be some party at Ludlow this afternoon as a number of our owners will be going to celebrate a special birthday.  It was Stuart Barnes' 50th birthday last Thursday and they are commemorating his big day with an outing to the races where the first contest is called the "Stuart Barnes Bumps Maiden Hurdle".  One of our jockey's Conor O'Farrell takes the ride aboard Nomadic Dreamer for Mark Rimmell, while Zarzal looks to be the one to beat.

There were some decent efforts in defeat at the weekend with Poole Master putting up a good performance when third in the handicap hurdle at Haydock on Saturday - he was trying to give the winner Yes You Can a stone, so he was in no way disgraced.  I thought that Katkeau was in the process of running a big race in the valuable Fixed Brush handicap hurdle when making a jarring blunder at the third last when still appearing to be travelling well.  I'm fairly confident it would have cost him at least a place, I am sure he will be able to make amends in future.

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Wow!  What a turnaround from the England cricket team to win the second test match and level the series against India, and what a fantastic knock from Kevin Pietersen.  Over the years some of the greatest sportsmen have had problems - just look at George Best, John McEnroe, Alex Higgins and so on.  I reckon that Pietersen falls into this category and sometimes they just need to be cut a bit of slack - they will occasionally be out of order, but a slap on the wrist is normally enough to resolve the situation.  Pietersen certainly repaid some of the faith shown in him by the selectors and long may it continue.  I thought that Monty Panesar was great too...you don't need to have quick bowlers in India and it is a waste of time having Anderson and Broad out there.

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I did say that I was concerned about Ricky Hatton making his comeback, although I thought that at least his connections had found him an opponent that he could beat.  Apparently not and it will be interesting to see what the "Hitman" does next - boxing must be one of the hardest sports to make a comeback in and you can get hurt!

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Rory McIlroy produced five amazing birdies at the last five holes to win the World Tour Championship in Dubai at the weekend.  Surely now he can be considered in the Tiger Woods class?

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What is it that drivers win when they win a Formula One race?  In all other sports you know what the prizemoney is, but not at the pinnacle of motorsport.  I don't suppose he is too worried about the money, but young Sebastian Vettel become the youngest three-time world champion at the weekend - an amazing performance and there could still be quite a few more to come from the German.