Heatwave!

With the lovely weather looking set to continue, what better way to enjoy the sun than at a racemeeting?  There are four meetings to choose from this afternoon - three on the flat at Ripon, Lingfield and Yarmouth as well as a jumps card at Hexham.  The prize money isn't too clever however with only £23,000 on offer at Hexham and two of the races being worth less than £2,000 (and only £299 of that going to the third horse home).  Indeed, the place prize money on offer probably wouldn't even pay the expenses for the day!  The stable has no runners today, with our next racecourse representatives probably coming tomorrow at Newton Abbot.

One of the rules that I like to follow as a punter is to back stables in form and few are in better form at present than Amanda Perrett.  She has had 9 winners from her last 17 runners at a strike rate of 53%.  She must be followed whilst this hot streak continues.

*****

One person who always divided opinion was John McCririck and while 'Big Mac' is not necessarily my cup of tea, he did liven up the Morning Line.  I am still not convinced that he knows much about horse racing (or fashion for that matter!) - he is now suing the IMG Sports Media Group for £2.5 million for punitive damages.  I hope that he is not representing himself!  Perhaps he should have former co-presenter John Francome as his barrister - they might not win but it would certainly be entertaining!

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There was a good performance from Essex player Graham Napier yesterday as he took four wickets in four balls against Surrey (ending up with 7-32).  Great bowling figures and unsurprisingly Essex scored by 178 runs - I may live in Devon, but I will always be an Essex lad at heart!

*****

It only took Jose Mourinho five minutes to say yes to the Chelsea job.  I wonder how much the appointment is going to cost Roman Abramovich and I wonder how much the 'Special One' is going to be given to spend on players.  He will probably need £100 million to spend on three or four new players, including a quality striker...Edison Cavani will cost about £50 million from Napoli.

I was amused to hear one of Mourinho's expressions, "I'm really easy to get along with once you people learn to worship me!"