Happy Birthday Dear!

It looks like being a quiet day on the racing front with one meeting on the flat and one meeting over jumps.  The stable has a runner at both meetings - Problema Tic takes in the Perth Gold Cup up at the Scottish track.  As you would expect for the amount of prize money on offer, it is a very competitive handicap, but our charge did win at Ayr under similar conditions last year so hopefully he will be able to put in a bold show under Tom Scudamore.  Meanwhile classy hurdler Street Entertainer runs on the level for the first time since 2010 in the 1m6f handicap at Nottingham and will be ridden by Neil Callan.

It looks like being a quiet day on the racing front with one meeting on the flat and one meeting over jumps.  The stable has a runner at both meetings - Problema Tic takes in the Perth Gold Cup up at the Scottish track.  As you would expect for the amount of prize money on offer, it is a very competitive handicap, but our charge did win at Ayr under similar conditions last year so hopefully he will be able to put in a bold show under Tom Scudamore.  Meanwhile classy hurdler Street Entertainer runs on the level for the first time since 2010 in the 1m6f handicap at Nottingham and will be ridden by Neil Callan.

Emma Spencer dropped a bit of a clanger live on Channel 4 on Epsom Oaks day when she was asking Neil Callan if he was looking forward to the ride aboard Sri Putra.  "I think you should do your homework" Callan told Spencer - he had been jocked off in favour of the returning Frankie Dettori.  Oops!

What about the gamble that Planetoid landed at Newton Abbot earlier in the week?  Jim Best's formerly useful flat horse showed his first signs of ability over timber by boting up under champion jockey A P McCoy who was replacing the advertised jockey who was waylaid with a flat tyre.

I still fondly recall Carrie Ann winning at Haydock many moons ago.  She was in the winners' enclosure waiting for the subsequent auction to start when MCP asked the auctioneer out load if he needed to take the bandages off her bad legs?  The auctioneer just smiled and Martin managed to get away with no bid!

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I see that Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia have been kept apart in next week's US Open following some rather poorly judged comments from the Spaniard.  Wouldn't it have been great if they had played together?!  It would certainly have livened things up a bit!!

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I see that Matt Fisher is playing cricket for Yorkshire today against Leicestershire at Scarborough.  He will become the youngest post-war cricketer to play in one of England's county competitions - he is just 15 years of age.

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Finally, I couldn't sign off today without wishing the long-suffering Mrs Barnes a very happy birthday.  I wouldn't dream of divulging her age, but it is not the first time that she has been 21!  As you can see of the picture of her recently with Carol, Jane is well out of my league so I truly am a very lucky boy!