Purple on Flat

 Purple N Gold after winning at Kempton

Today there are six meetings all on the flat at Sandown, Haydock, Leicester, Beverley, Nottingham and Carlisle.  David's only runner of the weekend is at Nottingham this evening, Purple N Gold runs in the 8.00pm race.  Our four year old has been running on the all weather at Kempton recently but he is still seven pounds higher than his last winning mark.  He has run well off a mark of 74 on the all weather and he is only two pounds higher this evening but he does needs to bounce back from a disappointing run last time.  There is good racing at Sandown this afternoon with a Group 1 and a Group 3 plus two Listed races.  All eyes will be on the 3.50pm race with Al Kazeem taking on Declaration of War who comes over from Ireland.  The good news is all these races are on Channel 4 for us all to enjoy.

It is Bob Hodge's birthday today, he is 44.  Bob is one of our travelling head lad's and has been a member of the team for many years.  He will in fact be spending his birthday at Notingham this evening, so lets hope we have a birthday winner for him!  When I saw this in the paper I thought it must be the good guys birthdays today and then I saw it was also Stuart Mercer's birthday!  Stuart Mercer is a fantastic chap and has been a long term owner at Pond House.  Stuart wears those ties that make you turn the colour down on your TV!  I would like to wish them both a very happy birthday.

I see from reading Richard Hughes' column in the Racing Post today that he only wants races to count in the jockey's title that are worth over £2500.  I think why not go one better Richard and have only races to count that Richard Hannon trains the winner of?!

Andy Murray has reached his second Wimbledon final.  I don't think having the roof on helped the moaning Pole Janowicz.  He complained about the fading light and wanted the roof on centre court.  I think it was wrong ever putting a roof on any court.  Rod Laver did not need a roof on to win his titles.  They should just make playing schedules better, it is not rocket science!  We have great final to look forward to on Sunday and it is anything like the Australian Open final between Murray and Djokovic then we are in for a treat.