One Bangor Runner

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with two on the flat at Musselburgh and Carlisle as well as two over the sticks at Southwell and Bangor.  The stable has one runner; Massanie (pictured above) who makes her chasing debut at Bangor this evening and Tom Scudamore takes the ride, so long as he can find the track!  Massannie has schooled well at home and is clearly a very talented mare - she only has 10-5 to carry today and if she puts her best foot forward, a big run would be expected.

The papers are full of Tom Scudamore's error yesterday where he took the wrong course at Cartmel and rather than continuing with the rest of the field he carried straight on before the first flight of hurdles to jump a fence.  He picked up a twelve day ban for his mistake, which is the entry point for taking the wrong course and I don't suppose for one minute Tom would do anything other than put his hands up and take the blame.  Clearly he should have known if he was competing in a hurdle or a chase (although his mount had actually run behind one of our charges, Ainsi Fideles over fences last time) but I'm sure it was completely unintentional and will be a while before he does something like that again.

There is a good picture on page 2 of the Racing Post where they claim that champion jockey A P McCoy is offering some comforting words to our stable jockey.  If I know McCoy at all, he is probably asking Tom if he has any fancied rides coming up over the next few days!

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Those greedy bookies are always dreaming up ways of taking our money and I see that one firm has priced up a load of specials about Prince George who is a year old today.  He is 50/1 to own a Group One winning racehorse, 33/1 to compete in the Oxford versus Cambridge University boat race or even money to join the army.  I thought that all of the Royals joined the army...the trouble is that you are going to have to wait at least seventeen years before you can collect.  I reckon even I could come up with a better even money chance in that time!

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I see that Sir Ian Botham and Michael Vaughan agree with me that it is time to rest beleaguered England skipper Alastair Cook.  I could see a few matches back that his confidence and technique are all at sea.  Meanwhile Matt Prior has also stepped away from England and is taking a rest - the wicket keeper has dropped a lot of catches behind the stumps lately - I'm sad to say it, but the pair won't be missed in the short term.

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I must be missing something...Gerrard the Lionheart?  The press are saying what a great skipper he has been, but with England ranked 20th in world football behind even the likes of the USA you have to question their logic.  What is wrong with our cricket, football and tennis players - the fault has to come from the top...I am in a bad mood this morning!

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