Haven Fantastic At Fontwell

I thought that Mount Haven (pictured above) was a hugely impressive winner of the bumper at Fontwell yesterday afternoon.  Despite showing signs of inexperience himself, he made all of the running to score easing down by sixteen lengths.  I am not sure it was the strongest of races, but you can only beat what is put in front of you and he would appear to be some sort of good thing to win over hurdles and fences when David decides to send him jumping.  David found this one at the Cheltenham Sales and he looks to be yet another promising young recruit to the ranks at Pond House.

On to today and there are five meetings taking place this afternoon - four on the flat at Hamilton, Lingfield, Southwell and Kempton as well as a jumps fixture from Ffos Las.  The stable has no runners today.

I see that owner Paul Murphy is going to run most of his horses in France because the prize money is so bad in this country.  He says that if one of his horses wins in this country, it picks up less prize money than a horse finishing fourth in France.  Our winner at Fontwell last night picked up £1559 for winning his bumper, while over in France the horse who finished fourth in the claimer at Maisons-Laffitte picked up £1583!  Vif Argent picked up some good prize money for finishing third at Auteuil recently and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see David have a few more runners across the Channel.  I think Paul Murphy makes a good point and like I keep saying, if the owners are willing to run for peanuts, the tracks in this country will continue to put up poor prize money.

I was watching the action from Southwell yesterday afternoon and saw the race that landed apprentice jockey Adam Carter in hot water.  Carter was found guilty under the non-triers rule - I have to say, it did look bad as his mount was never in the race and finished strongly without ever being given a chance to win.

Surely Aidan O'Brien wants his son to win the Derby, so I take it as a positive sign that his son Joseph is aboard ante-post favourite Australia.  He has drifted in the betting over the past few days and it has been worrying me, mind you hopefully that is because most punters are looking for a longer priced winner!

*****

I thought that England's defense looked terrible last night as we drew 2-2 with Ecuador in Miami last night.  Our full backs simply didn't look up to the task.  Stirling was sent off, as was their winger Antonio Valencia - it was supposed to be a friendly match!  Personally, if I were in charge of the FA I would ensure that there are no more than four or five overseas players per Premier League side, a bit like they do in cricket.  That would seem to be the only way for our home grown players to get any better and give our National team a chance on the world stage.

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