It's My Birthday!

First things first and it's a big day around the stable today as it marks my 67th birthday!  I know, I can barely believe how good I am looking on it either - that's what a lifetime of looking after yourself, healthy eating and abstaining from alcohol does for you...not!  We had a little get together in Brixham last week and Martin, Carol, David and Leanne came down to help me celebrate.  We had a fantastic evening and as you can see, I had a lovely cake.  The picture shows me laughing at one of my own jokes as usual...well, someone has to!  What do I want for my birthday?...well, you are more than welcome to send cheques courtesy of Pond House but other than that, just to see West Ham stay in the Premiership, it's not asking the world is it?!

What a marvellous performance by Red Sherlock to land the Grade Two Neptune novices' hurdle at Cheltenham on Saturday.  Taking the sharp step up in grade in his stride, he extended his unbeaten record to six with victory over the highly regarded Willie Mullins trained favourite Rathvinden.  The pair of them were 29 lengths clear of the remainder and this looks top class form - the most impressive thing would be that there appears to be more to come too.  His mum, Lady Cricket was a fantastic mare and is making her mark in the paddocks too...remember, Red Sherlock is a half brother to Swing Bowler.  I would imagine that he could end up in the Neptune at Cheltenham in March.  Of our other runners, Centasia performed creditably when finishing fourth at Doncaster, while veteran Consigliere finished runner-up at Sedgefield yesterday.  Great Choice was disappointing and is certainly capable of better than this - perhaps the ground found him out?

I thought that Big Buck's ran okay in the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham on Saturday after an absence of 420 days - he wasn't beaten at all far into third behind shock winner Knockara Beau, but I would have loved to hear Paul Nicholls' riding instructions to Sam Twiston-Davies.  Meanwhile, over at Doncaster unbeaten mare Annie Power once again looked very good in landing the prohibitive odds of 1/6.  She achieved no more than she was entitled to do, but will take some beating at the Festival and it will be interesting to see what race she turns up in...surely connections must fancy a crack at Big Buck's now?

There are just two meetings taking place this afternoon following the abandonment of Plumpton yesterday due to waterlogging on the course.  All that remains is a National Hunt meeting at Ayr and an all-weather flat fixture at Wolverhampton.  The stable has no runners today, although I have heard a strong word for the Mark Johnston trained Sir Charlie Kunz in the 4.40 at Wolverhampton - he should be spot-on now and can provide me with a bit of spending money for my birthday.

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How on earth could England lose another match down under?  They needed only 217 in their 50 over match against the Aussies, yet were bowled out five runs short.  Ravi Bopara scored 25 runs, but he seemed to take an eternity to get there...this series in Australia has been nothing short of a disaster.

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Stanislas Wawrinka landed his first success in a Grand Slam tennis final when beating an injured Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open.  Nadal was gracious as ever in defeat, but some of the 'Big Four' are nearing the end of the careers and I think we will start seeing a few new names on the Grand Slam trophies from here on in.

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I hope you all followed me in on my 'fantastic five' football bets at the weekend.  While all five teams were short prices, they all won so I was well pleased!  I was amused to read that Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini say that he wanted to substitute all eleven of his players at half-time.  In the end they beat Watford 4-2...it could have been one of the shocks of the season.