Three Runners At Newton

This afternoon there are four meetings taking place with three fixtures on the flat from Ayr, Windsor and Lingfield as well as a jumps card from our local track Newton Abbot.  Not for the first time Newton Abbot have done well to secure more prize money than their flat counterparts so well done to them.  The stable has three runners at the Devon track; Vif Argent, Franklin Roosevelt (pictured above) and Bathwick Man.  If Vif Argent can handle this quicker surface he could well run a big race at likely odds of around 6/1.  He ran well in France last time and would have a squeak on that form.

We had two runners yesterday afternoon (one each at Stratford and Southwell) with both Intermath and Famousandfearless finishing third.  Intermath looks s though he could win a little handicap granted a reasonable handicap mark, although I was a little disappointed by former Irish point-to-point winner Famousandfearless.  Surprisingly it looked as though he didn't quite get home - he should be more than capable of winning a race, particularly when his attention is turned to fences.

There was just one winner for champion jockey A P McCoy yesterday afternoon as he closes down on MCP's total number of career winners.  Success aboard Stonemadforspeed at Southwell yesterday means that he is just one shy of equalling that number, although his recent progress has been a little like cricketers when they get into the nervous nineties.  

I see that Ossie Ardiles was at Southwell racecourse yesterday helping raise money for the Help The Heroes campaign.  Ossie predicted that Argentina would win the World Cup 2-1 - he was a great footballer but not such a good tipster!  I must admit that I backed Germany, while I also collected on Lionel Messi...having said that it only put me level on my football betting.  I guess that makes me little better than Ossie!  Let's hope that England learn something from the German approach and we start introducing our youngsters in all future Internationals.

Justin Rose won the Scottish Open at the weekend by a couple of shots from Sweden's Kristoffer Broberg, in the process moving to number three in the world.  He looks to be a really solid golfer these days...perhaps Rory McIlroy should have a word with Justin and find out a bit about consistency.

Mo Martin won her first tournament when she landed the women's British Open at Southport.  She eagled the last to win in style and she was the only one to complete the tournament under par - I don't know much about the American but she came across very well on the television.

On to the cricket and England captain decided to have a little bowl himself and managed to take a wicket...that is all you need to know about the Test match.

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