Four Flat Meetings Today

Today there are no jump meetings, although there are four flat cards to look forward to - two on the turf at Catterick and Nottingham and a couple of all-weather cards at Kempton and Lingfield...the stable has no runners this afternoon.  It will certainly be good to have some jump racing back tomorrow and we have plenty of entries at Fontwell and Wincanton, including recent Exeter winner Bygones Sovereign (pictured above).

It is good to see that Grand National winning jockey Ryan Mania is out of hospital and home following his fall from Stagecoach Jasper at Hexham on Sunday.  The jockey received a heros welcome at his hometown of Galashiels.  He should get the green light to try to complete a famous double in the Scottish National aboard Auroras Encore next weekend, although he will have to pass Dr Michael Turner to get the okay.  As I keep saying though, they do make these jockeys tough so I wouldn't bet agains Ryan being in the saddle.

As I said yesterday, Carlisle is a long way from where A P McCoy lives so it is quite a hint if the champion jockey has chosen to ride there.  If you need a horse to win, send for the best and that is exactly what Warren Greatrex, Chris Grant and Alan Swinbank did as McCoy recorded a treble aboard Dolatulo, William Money and Master Rajeem.  AP was at his strongest aboard Master Rajeem - he was working hard some way from home but still managed to persuade his partner to put his head in front where it mattered - there is still no better jockey, even aboard the quirkiest of horses.

David needs two more winners to get to the magic 100 winners for the season.  He made it through the £1million prize money barrier last week - it would be quite a notable double.

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Obviously since the BBC have lost the rights to cover the Grand National they don't take as much of an interest.  One of their presenters claimed that trainer Ted Walsh had two daughters in the Grand National...Katie and Ruby!  The best part?...he even had a picture of the pair of them!  Thank goodness for Channel 4!

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I started to watch the football match between Real Madrid and Galatasaray last night.  I cannot believe that they would cover this match on mainstream television...it was so terrible that I even let my wife have the remote control so she could watch what she wanted!  I certainly earned a brownie point for that one (although I didn't tell her that I had no interest in this Champion's League match)!