Haven At Fontwell

It's a busy old day on the racing front with five meetings taking place this afternoon - four of them are on the level at Nottingham, Southwell, Ripon and Kempton, while there is also a jumps card from Fontwell.  The stable has one runner at Fontwell, Mount Haven who makes his debut for the yard in the bumper at 5.40pm.  He finished second on yielding ground in an Irish point-to-point on his sole start to date and that looks to be decent form with the winner posting a decent time.  He has pleased us at home since his arrival - there is not a lot of form to go on for the rest of his rivals, although Mount Haven looks sure to run a big race under Tom Scu.

Watching the action yesterday from Brighton, I thought that young William Carson rode some of his more experienced weighing room colleagues to sleep aboard Clapperboard in the seven furlong handicap.  He stole a lead he was never to relinquish - good stuff indeed.

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I see that it is owner Josie Tracey's birthday today.  A gentleman never divulges a lady's age, although I can tell you that Sean is a very lucky man to be married to someone as young as Josie (pictured on the left)!  Many happy returns Josie.

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What a coup for Channel 4 Racing's Royal Ascot team - they have managed to sign guru Gok Wan for their fashion coverage.  Personally, I have always thought the event was all about horse racing but there are one or two people who like to look at the hats and handbags!  I am probably missing the point, mind you if you see my Royal Ascot outfit you would see how much I know about fashion!

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Betfair suffered a bit of an embarrassment yesterday when one of their advertising props, a massive octopus was aboard the back of a flatbed lorry when the vehicle mysteriously broke down in the middle of Oxfor Circus bringing the streets of London to a standstill.  Police said that Betfair did not have a leg to stand on...boom boom!

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There should be an entertaining football match on this evening as England play Equador in Miami at 8pm on ITV.  It looks largely like the England reserve team and I wonder what manager Roy Hodgson is going to learn from playing these eleven players that he does not already know?  I could see only three or four of these players competing in the proper matches against the likes of Italy.  Even so, Equador are a poor team and we could be worth a bet at odds of 10/11.

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There was a bit of controversy yesterday as England lost the one day series against Sri Lanka.  If you break the rules and then do the same again on the following delivery, you are out.  Jos Buttler was run-out when backing up his team mate yesterday and while it is legal, it is not in the spirit of the game.  He was miles out of his crease, so it begs the question, why have rules at all?  Finally, I don't care what anybody says, Sri Lankan bowler Malinga throws the ball!

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