100 Up!

There was another notable milestone achieved yesterday as Western Warhorse became David's 100th winner of the season with a convincing success in the National Hunt novices' hurdle at Chepstow under Tom Scudamore.  David made it through the £1million prize money barrier last week and to make it past 100 this week is a good achievement - with a fortnight of the season remaining and a few big meetings left, there is still room to improve on those totals yet.

It hasn't been plain sailing for all of the leading trainers though - I don't know if it is due to the number of meetings lost this campaign, but messrs Henderson, Nicholls and McCain look unlikely to better last season's totals, while Philip Hobbs (62) and Alan King (54) may well have hoped for more successes.  Indeed, while Nicky Henderson has had a marvellous season and looks certain to be crowned champion trainer for the first time since the 1986/87 season - it is worth noting that surprisingly, he is nearly 50 wins short of last season's tally.

Anyway, I divulge - there are four meetings taking place this afternoon, two on the flat at Doncaster and Kempton as well as a couple of jumps fixtures at Stratford and Uttoxeter.  The stable has one runner this afternoon, Baltimore Rock in the bumper at Stratford.  Roger Brookhouse was the owner of our 99th winner (Seven Nation Army) and 100th winner (Western Warhorse) - it would be marvellous if he were also the owner of our 101st!

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Ace commentator Simon Holt has suggested that there were not enough toilet facilities at Aintree this year.  I must admit that I didn't experience any difficulties during my three days at the Merseyside track - maybe the commentary box isn't situated next to any toilets, but the wordsmith complained of the long queues.  It's funny how people's experiences of the same event are different from person to person.

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Millwall take on Wigan in the FA Cup semi-final this afternoon.  Both clubs have sent plenty of tickets back, so if you want to see a semi-final football match - this is your big chance.  Wigan at odds of 5/6 look worth a bet to me - the kick off is at 5.15pm.  They will form part of my cheeky little treble - the other teams are Arsenal at 1/4 and Everton at 9/2.