Weekend Jottings!

Today there are just three National Hunt meetings taking place at Fontwell, Kelso and Uttoxeter.  The stable runs Laustra Bad at Fontwell, while Mr Trilby and Massannie represent the yard at Uttoxeter.  Conor O'Farrell takes the ride aboard Laustra Bad and while he is back on a feasible mark, our ten year old needs to recapture some of his old form.  Over at Uttoxeter Tom Scudamore is aboard our other two runners - Mr Trilby won a point-to-point in Ireland and could go well on his hurdling debut now up in trip, while bumper winner Massannie makes her debut for the yard.

It is good to see that the racing is little bit more wide spread this afternoon - a triumph for race planning (at last!).  It's just a shame that there are no flat meetings taking place, but it is a Bank Holiday weekend so what else do you expect?!

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I see that Saeed Bin Suroor has said that he is comfortable training 400 horses.  All I can say is that you would need some seriously good staff to keep an eye on that many horses.  I remember when Martin used to have around 170 horses - it used to take an awful lot of planning and organisation to run smoothly.

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When I was a young lad at school I used to be a big cricket fan and it was all about the county championship but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.  All of my mates used to follow Essex and I enjoyed countless hours watching the likes of Barry Knight and Trevor Bailey in Ilford Park.  Those fond memories back before my table tennis days will always live with me, but I think that it is a shame it doesn't create such excitement among the youngsters of today.  It seems that only international cricket makes the papers nowadays and I really don't think that putting a beating on New Zealand is much to write home about!

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What is wrong with our golfers?!  I think that the good life of living in America has made them all softies!  McIlroy, Poulter and Donald all failed to make the cut at Wentworth yesterday and McIlroy went as far as to say he was looking forward to playing somewhere he is wearing four layers.  These guys don't live in the real world!