It's A Lottery!

It's a busy day on the level with five flat cards to look forward to from Ayr, Newmarket, Newbury, Catterick and Wolverhampton.  There is great prize money up for grabs at Ayr for their Gold Cup meeting.  Indeed, there is over £400,000 up for grabs.  The big race itself has attracted no fewer than 27 runners and the bookies make it 11/1 the field - that gives you some idea of how competitive the race is.  I have a feeling that the ground is going to catch a lot of these runners out.  The Silver Cup (for those that didn't make the cut for the feature race) has also attracted 27 runners - for those people having a punt, you might be better off saving your money and having a go at tonight's National Lottery instead!

It's a busy day on the level with five flat cards to look forward to from Ayr, Newmarket, Newbury, Catterick and Wolverhampton.  There is great prize money up for grabs at Ayr for their Gold Cup meeting.  Indeed, there is over £400,000 up for grabs.  The big race itself has attracted no fewer than 27 runners and the bookies make it 11/1 the field - that gives you some idea of how competitive the race is.  I have a feeling that the ground is going to catch a lot of these runners out.  The Silver Cup (for those that didn't make the cut for the feature race) has also attracted 27 runners - for those people having a punt, you might be better off saving your money and having a go at tonight's National Lottery instead!

I see that Conor O'Farrell has picked up a couple of rides at Listowel today.  It is good to see him getting a few outside rides and both of his mounts Baizically and Byron Blue appear to have live each-way chances.

I have a photograph of Swing Bill from earlier in the week to share with you this morning, although I was a little worried that the old favourite might get lost in the fog!  'Bill' has been a wonderful servant down the years and has run with great races in the Grand National for the last couple of years, most recently when sixth behind Aurora's Encore in April.  I would imagine that will be his ultimate objective again this term.  As you can see from the picture of him with his ears pricked, he is looking well and clearly enjoying his work.

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Following a few days without, it will be good to have some jump racing tomorrow afternoon.  There are meetings at Plumpton and Uttoxeter, while there will also be one flat card up in Scotland...personally, I still don't think race planning have managed to get the balance quite right.

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I was quite amused to read the comments of Pat Flynn, who said 'riding a horse is a lot like nuts and bolts...if the rider's nuts, the horse bolts!'  

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Henrick Stenson is leading the way in the Tour Championship Golf in Georgia.  There is around £10million up for grabs and if he keeps it together he should scoop the biggest pot of his career.  Tiger Woods seems to have blown it with a score of 73 in the first round - his putting really looks to have gone to pot recently.

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My little football treble for the weekend: Arsenal at 2/5, Liverpool at 8/13 and Newcastle at 5/6.  You heard it here first!