Hoping For Lady Luck!

Today there are five meetings taking place this afternoon - four on the flat at Ayr, Southwell, Ripon and Kempton as well as a jumps card at my local track, Newton Abbot which is just a few miles down the road from me at Brixham.  It looks like being another lovely day and I have to reiterate David's comments from his blog last week - there are few better places on a sunny summer afternoon than Newton Abbot races - if you are in the area, do make sure to pay the track a visit.  The stable has one runner this afternoon, Ladyvie who participates in the 5.20pm race.  Our six year old mare has some bits and pieces of form that suggest she can be competitive in a race of this nature, especially as she was a course winner on good/firm ground last season (pictured above).  Young Frank Hayes takes 7lbs off her back.

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After missing the first few weeks of the season through injury, A P McCoy is now only six behind jockeys championship leader Jason Maguire.  It is surely only a matter of time before he is back where he belongs at the head of the standings, even so with Maguire setting such a hot pace in front, I am sure few would have believed that McCoy would already be in such close proximity.  We must enjoy AP's riding before he calls time on his career, we are not going to see another jockey like him again.

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Apparently Great Leighs racecourse that was forced to close in 2009 could be open for racing again by next year.  Some people might say, the more tracks the better, especially with the recent closures at Hereford and Folkestone, however, I am not sure that another all-weather track is really what we need.  The trouble is that the all-weather offers a very poor standard of racing.

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I see that British heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury wants to fight David Haye.  It could be a good fight - Fury is a lot bigger and Haye does not hit too hard (although I wouldn't tell him that to his face!).  Fury stands at a massive 6 feet 9 inches and could just be too big for Haye to handle.  There is bound to be plenty of trash talking done by the two of them over the coming months - I just hope that Audley Harrison doesn't decide to try to get involved!

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New Zealand National League Rugby player Russell Packer incurred the wrath of authorities after peeing on the pitch in Brisbane.  His team, the New Zealand Warriors were fined $10,000 for the incident - so much for spending a penny!