Poor Prize Money

Today there are four meetings taking place, three on the level at Ripon, Brighton and Yarmouth as well as a jumps card at Southwell.  It is that time of year again when I get that buzzing bee in my bonnet about prize money and both Brighton and Southwell have managed to get away with seven race cards worth a total of only £29,000 each.  As far as I can tell, unless you finish first or second in most of the races you will struggle to cover your expenses and that is not the way to attract owners (or racegoers for that matter) to racing.  If I were still owning racehorses, I wouldn't be in any hurry to rush to these tracks.

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I see that it is senior handicapper Phil Smith 65th birthday today.  Phil does a difficult job, afterall it is impossible to keep all of the owners and trainers happy all of the time and much as I hate to admit it, he and his team get it right most of the time.  It reminds me of a quick story when Martin was training - he invited Phil Smith down to Pond House for the evening.  Martin had assembled a number of 'form' people including myself, A P McCoy, Jonothan Lower and James from our office as a welcoming committee for him - Phil did see the funny side of it saying, "I didn't realise I was going to be interrogated!"  Phil pulled out all of his form books and put up a pretty good defense, although Martin had the last laugh when he put a blow-up doll in Phil's bed!  I never did ask the boss why he had a blow-up doll?!  Anyway, many happy returns Phil.

Talking of A P McCoy, the champ has made an unbelievable start to the new campaign en route to potentially his 20th title.  He is currently riding at a strike rate of 41% having ridden 17 winners from his last 41 rides.

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I was interested to see trainer David Evans' views about the new regulation of trainers self-certificates whereby trainers are not allowed to have more than 15% self-certificated non-runners to runners.  He said, "I have a lot more runners than most trainers and some will be non-runners when they have run two days before."  I think he makes a valid point.

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Apparently former Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard has sixteen clubs trying to sign him.  He will not make a decision until after the World Cup, although I reckon that if Chelsea were to offer him another contract he would stay at Stamford Bridge.  There is nothing quite like living in London's Kings Road (especially if you are stinking rich)!

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I see that former snooker world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan is taking another six month sabatical from the sport.  He says that there are three big tournaments from November to January and he will certainly be playing in them.  He will be earning money from exhibitions and media work in the mean time, not that he would need the money!  It's good work if you can get it - I wouldn't mind a job where I only have to work three months a year!

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