One Worcester Runner

It is a busy day on the racing front with five meetings taking place this afternoon.  Four of them are on the level at Carlisle, Salisbury, Kempton and Bath while there is the last jumping card for a few days at Worcester this afternoon.  The stable has one runner at Worcester; Dan Breen(pictured above) who participates in the 2m7f handicap hurdle at 4.30pm.  Our nine year old is an 8/1 chance according to today's Racing Post and while he has not won for three years he has been placed in some of the hottest handicaps in the country from higher marks than this in the past.  At the age of nine he certainly isn't getting any quicker and looks like he is worth a try at this longer trip...let's hope that he can run a big race for his colourful owner Stuart Mercer.

We drew a blank at Newton Abbot yesterday evening.  Top Wood seemed to lose his confidence after an early mistake on his second outing over fences and he finally unseated Tom Scudamore when beaten, while Red Seventy led for a long way before eventually running out of steam...there will be other days for him I am sure.

I see that it is former Pond House conditional jockey Andrew Glassonbury's 28th birthday today.  He was aboard Gaspara for the second leg of the famous Imperial Cup/Cheltenham Festival double.  I wonder what has happened to Glazza, he doesn't seem to ride anymore?

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What about nutty Uruguayan Luis Suarez?  The star striker bit another opponent last night as Uruguay beat Italy 1-0.  If he did that in the street for a second time he would be facing a spell of porridge, while if he were a dog he would already have been put to sleep!  At the end of the match he threw his arm band away - he clearly has some sort of problem, afterall what sort of stable person would do something so ridiculous, particularly on the biggest stage of all?  It certainly isn't something I think our children and grandchildren should be aspiring to...I know he is one of the finest players in the world, l but as far as I am concerned FIFA should hand him a lengthy ban while Liverpool should bite the bullet and get rid of him.

I have known people banned for a lot less than Suarez, myself included!  I remember winning the English Open table tennis championship a long time ago now and one of the prizes was a dart board.  I told the assembled media that I was going to try to come back the following year to win a set of darts...the result, a twelve month ban!  I kid you not.

Anyway, back to the World Cup and England only drew 0-0 with Costa Rica last night, meaning that the leave this year's tournament without winning a match.  This is England's worst performance in history.  Just think, the likes of Japan, Greece and Costa Rica have all qualified for the knockout stages - that is all you need to know.  It seems like our strikers need about ten clear chances before they score a goal - they just are not sharp enough.  For all that the national side is clearly rubbish, we most certainly have the best fans in the world...can you imagine the Brazilian fans if their team had performed like England?

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Onto cricket and I see that England managed to snatch defeat away from a possible draw against the Sri Lankan's yesterday.  There was a great ton from England spin bowler Moeen Ali who made 108, all Jimmy Anderson had to do was survive another two balls to score the unlikely draw.

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At least there is still some hope for the English at Wimbledon.  There are no fewer than two ladies through to the second round of the championship with both guaranteed at least £43,000 in prize money.  I didn't earn that sort of cash in twenty years of ping pong!

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