A Great Grand National!

Today there are three meetings, one over the sticks at Kelso as well as two all-weather cards at Kempton and Wolverhampton.  It all has a bit of an anti-climactic feel to proceedings today following the highs of the Grand National at the weekend.  Swing Bill ran a fantastic race in the Aintree spectacular, finishing a very creditable sixth, in the process giving his young jockey Conor O'Farrell the thrill of a lifetime.  The amazing part is that Swing Bill is twelve years old now.  Indeed, five of the first six home were either eleven or twelve years of age so I guess a little bit of experience went a long way on Saturday.  The best news of all of course was that all the horses came back safe and sound, thus avoiding the annual slating from the press.  Anyway, congratulations to connections of Aurora's Encore, particularly trainer Sue Smith - a terrific performance and a day she is never likely to forget.

Today there are three meetings, one over the sticks at Kelso as well as two all-weather cards at Kempton and Wolverhampton.  It all has a bit of an anti-climactic feel to proceedings today following the highs of the Grand National at the weekend.  Swing Bill ran a fantastic race in the Aintree spectacular, finishing a very creditable sixth, in the process giving his young jockey Conor O'Farrell the thrill of a lifetime.  The amazing part is that Swing Bill is twelve years old now.  Indeed, five of the first six home were either eleven or twelve years of age so I guess a little bit of experience went a long way on Saturday.  The best news of all of course was that all the horses came back safe and sound, thus avoiding the annual slating from the press.  Anyway, congratulations to connections of Aurora's Encore, particularly trainer Sue Smith (pictured below with Martin) - a terrific performance and a day she is never likely to forget.

There was at least one person who was less than happy with the Grand National though...international recording artist Leona Lewis.  The singer had a right rant on the social networking website Twitter and posted a tweet about the big race suggesting that all the jockeys should be put down.  What a twit!  I wonder if it has anything to do with her trying to drum up a bit of publicity as she hasn't released any new material for some time?  I mustn't go any further as I could get into a bit of trouble!

Thoughts are with Grand National winning jockey Ryan Mania who is currently in hospital after suffering a crushing fall at Hexham yesterday.  He was airlifted to hospital at Newcastle - talk about the up's and down's of life as a jump jockey - it just goes to show the risks that these guys take every time they climb into the saddle.

Also at Liverpool, we managed to win the 1m5f charity legends race with War Singer who was partnered by former Grand National winning jockey Tony Dobbin.  Tony was so pleased that he even came into the sponsors bar with his jockey head on (see picture right) - his instructions were simple, 'ride him like a good horse' and true to form War Singer won like a good horse!  I did tell organiser Bob Champion that he would win so he had £500 each way on for his charity The Bob Champion Foundation.

Part-owner of War Singer, Terry Neill stayed up in Liverpool to watch the football match between Liverpool and West Ham.  I doubt he will be as pleased as I am that the Hammers managed to earn a point for their thrilling 0-0 draw(!).