Gallant Second

                Horses at Grass

Today there are four meetings, all on the flat at Beverley, Bath, Yarmouth and Kempton.  It is terrible prize money at Kempton and Yarmouth, in fact the total prize fund for the Kempton meeting is only £34,000 for the eight race card.  How do they get away with it?  It was a sad day for the yard at Newton Abbot yesterday as we unfortunately lost Bad Girls who was injured on the flat and had to be put down.  It is very sad for her owners and all the staff so our thoughts are with them at the moment.  Palace Jester was a non runner but Qulinton ran well to finish second to American Legend in the long distance hurdle and was not beaten very far.  Conor O'Farrell gave him a great ride and he was only just beaten.  Champion jockey AP was on board the winner and he rode a treble at our local track.  It was nice our nine year old ran well and he should be capable of winning off this mark.

It was very sad yesterday to hear of the passing of Taunton racecourse's clerk of the course, Mike Trickey.  Mike has been at our local track for many years and as always been very helpful to all of us at Pond House both on a professional and personal level.  He was a great clerk and a great man.  He has been a big supporter of racing and point to pointing in the west country for many years.  In fact David even rode for him once in a point to point.  He will be sadly missed and our thouhts and prayers are with his friends and family.

I see in the paper that Sligo have put 100,000 gallons of water on their track.  They wanted to remove the word firm from the going description.  I would not want their water bill!  Having said that, I am sure my wife puts that much on our garden and we haven't had the bill yet!  Only joking.

Athletics has once again attracted bad publicity with some of the sports top sprinters having failed drugs tests.  Would you ever take tablets which you did not know what they were for?  I certainly would not and I am sure these cheating athletes knew what they were taking.  Surely it is time for life bans?!  Five Jamaican sprinters and an American have all tested positive and it does not matter what they say it is cheating.

Phil Mickelson was great in winning the Scottish Open and he has been back to win the British Open this weekend.  The American is however never seen to play two tournaments the same these days so I won't be putting any money on him!  What about the 9am three ball of Nick Faldo, Tom Watson and Fred Couples.  They will have a big crowd followig them but I am not sure that any of them will make the cut.