Argent At Auteuil

There are five meetings taking place on these shores this afternoon with four on the level at Goodwood, Ayr, Sandown and Salisbury as well as a jumps fixture fro Wetherby.  While the stable doesn't have any runners at those meetings, it doesn't mean that we do not have any runners at all however.  Vif Argent, who has won and finished runner-up  at Ffos Las on his last two starts competes at Auteuil this afternoon where he will be reunited with winning jockey Thomas Viel - the race, a 2m5 1/2f chase, takes place at 1.50pm (our time).  The prize money over in France is excellent so let's hope that Vif Argent can bring some of it home with him!

Our two runners at Newton Abbot yesterday, Dan Breen and Decoy were a little disappointing so it is back to the drawing board with them.  Watching from the comfort of my armchair though, the ground looked plenty quick enough for their liking.  The winner of the race, Detroit Red absolutely bolted up and surely will be turned out again over the coming few days - the handicapper looks sure to put this one up by more than a 7lbs penalty.

There should be an interesting article in tomorrow's Racing Post when they cover the horses to follow for the summer from the Jonjo O'Neill, Paul Nicholls and David Pipe stables - it should certainly make for interesting reading.  One of my mates writes them all down and sees who has most winners at the end of the season - he backs most of them too!

Many happy returns to stable jockey Tom Scudamore who is 32 today.  Tom, who rode his maiden ton of winners last season, has made his best ever start to a campaign this time around and is currently second only to A P McCoy in the jockeys' championship with fifteen winners.  I wonder what Lottie has planned for him...good luck Tom!

I see that it is not only Irish point-to-point winners that are fetching plenty of money at the moment, but Kelso bumper winners too!  Doktor Glaz was top lot at the Doncaster Sales yesterday, fetching £100,000.  He was knocked down to Colin Tizzard so we should be seeing plenty of this one in the West country over the coming months.  David is still up at the sales for the final day of action, so if you would like to become an owner with the Pond House team do feel free to contact us so we can discuss your requirements.

*****

The England Under 17 football team won the European Championship last night after a penalty shoot-out with Holland.  If we are the best Under 17 side in Europe then why oh why do we not fare better in the bigger competitions?  It must be down to the coaches who take over as the players get older, or am I missing something?

I cannot believe that Manchester City player Yaya Toure is trying to leave the club because they didn't buy him a birthday cake.  I would have thought that it was more to do with money...he currently gets £11million per year to play for the team, poor chap, I don't know how he gets by!  How many cakes would you be able to buy with that sort of money?  He could probably even have real fairies on them!

Tweet?