A Great Day's Racing!

It must be a Bank Holiday weekend as we have loads of action to look forward to this afternoon following yesterday's blank day.  Indeed, there are no less than six meetings taking place at Doncaster, Haydock, Kempton, Musselburgh, Newton Abbot and Carlisle.  The rearranged Lincoln takes place this afternoon at Donny while the stable has runners at both Newton Abbot and Haydock, including Sir Frank (pictured above) who will be partnered by young Kieron Edgar in the ultra-competitive handicap chase at the northern track.  Our runners all seem to have chances in very open looking races.

I have often wondered why there is never any racing on a Good Friday?  There are football matches and rugby matches that take place, so why no racing?  Racing is in the entertainment business and most people don't work on this day, so surely it is a missed opportunity to get people interested in the sport.  Racing cannot afford to be 

blasé - let's face it, we need all the people we can get to watch our great sport.  Musselburgh will bid for a meeting on Good Friday next year - they want to host a mixed flat and jumps card - it's a good idea, now we need a southern track to do the same as Musselburgh is a bit far to drive from Brixham!

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I was interested to see that Shadwell Stud are advertising for a pedigree assistant.  Does that mean that the successful applicant has to come from good stock or do they need someone who knows a bit about bloodlines?!  You need to apply to Nunnery Stud - just don't make an abbot of it!...sorry, my jokes are getting worse.

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There are some very important bottom of the table football matches taking place this weekend.  Reading play Arsenal, Wigan take on Norwich, West Ham face West Brom and Aston Villa entertain Liverpool on Sunday, while Fulham play QPR on Monday.  I reckon these matches will seal the fate of some of those teams.  I will be having a little punt on Fulham at 21/20, Everton at 4/6 and QPR at 4/6 to put the bread on the table in the Barnes household.

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Q.  Why did the blonde sell her car?
A.  She needed the petrol money!  Keep smiling.