One Runner At Fakenham

Today we have three meetings to look forward to - two over the sticks at  Catterick and Fakenham as well as an all-weather flat meeting at Southwell.  The stable has a runner in the 2m4f National Hunt maiden hurdle at Fakenham at 12.50pm, Count Danilo (pictured above, right).  He was running a big race in an Irish point-to-point when capsizing at the penultimate fence and made his debut for the yard in a Listed bumper at Cheltenham last time.  David looks to have found a good opportunity for him so let's hope that he gets a trouble-free round under Tom Scudamore.

I thought that Baltimore Rock ran well in a decent looking hurdle at Ffos Las yesterday.  He was beaten less than a length into third place and looks to be a winner waiting to happen.  Meanwhile Off The Wall also finished third at the Welsh track - I just wonder if he quite saw out the trip on this very testing ground?  Shaking Hands produced a puzzling effort when pulled up at the 14th - I always thought that he loved heavy ground, so it will be back to the drawing board with him.  The ground almost certainly found out bumper performer Moncarno on his racecourse debut.

*****

Former Champion Hurdle winner Rock On Ruby won at the first time of asking over fences at Plumpton yesterday, although I thought there was some room for improvement in the jumping department.  He has to improve to win the Arkle and will need a few runs for experience first I would have thought.

*****

I did say that Andre Villas-Boas was on borrowed time, and he obviously didn't have much time as he was sacked yesterday.  There was nothing said about the people who employed him - there seems to be an awful lot of Spurs players who have no interest in the club.

*****

Well, England's humilitation in the Ashes series is complete after they lost the series by dropping the third Test to now trail 3-0.  The Aussies are much too good for our team and this England squad must be one of our worst for many years.  I am not just talking about on-field performances, but both Pietersen and Pryor need dropping - Pietersen in particular thinks that he is bigger than the team and has a poor attitude toward the sport.  Pryor is another one who has played terribly - as with our national football team, it is about time we brought through some of the youngsters.  Ben Stokes looks solid and scored a great ton - we need more players like him...players who want to represent their country!