Ayr Pair!

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon - two on the level at Newbury and on the all-weather at Wolverhampton and two over jumps at Ayr and Fontwell.  The stable has two runners up at Ayr: Problema Tic and Leader Of The Gang.  Problema Tic (pictured above winning at the Scottish track) runs in the three mile handicap hurdle and he looks reasonably treated from a mark of 124 when you consider that he has won over fences from 132 in the past, although he does have a few disappointing performance to overcome.  He stays well and could go well at a price, it would certainly be nice if he could perform creditably for his local owners.

There is a good flat card taking place at Newbury this afternoon - that is if they can find enough stables!  It seems a ridiculous situation to find yourself in when you do not have enough stables to house the runners, but that is what they were faced with last Saturday.  There are a couple of cracking looking maidens on the card today and Casual Smile from the Andrew Balding yard looks a particularly interesting contender in the 5.45pm race.

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I see that naughty boy commentator Gordon Brown has been caught using his mobile phone at work.  Fortunately for him he managed to get away with just a stern telling off.  Hasn't anyone told Gordon that you can get hands free kits for your phone?  Mind you, he is Scottish and they do cost a few quid...I'm sure Sean Tracey will be pulling me up on that remark!

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I am told that tickets for Sunday's football match between Liverpool and Manchester City are changing hands for as much as £5,000!  It must be players buting the tickets up for their friends...I can't think of anyone else who would be able to afford those sorts of prices!

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I was glued to the coverage of the first round of the US Masters yesterday.  How good does the Augusta course look?  It is so lush, green and tidy that it barely looks real on television.  I had a few quid on Adam Scott to win the title and he had a good first round, while Ian Poulter started with a round of 76.  It doesn't matter how good Poulter thinks he is, it is results that cound and he has blown any chance of winning this.

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