Day Five!

Day five of our summer sabbatical and there are five meetings on the level to keep us entertained.  They are from Musselburgh, Brighton, Lingfield, Newmarket and Haydock - once again there is an excellent piece of race planning with Lingfield and Brighton within relatively close proximity of each other.  Am I the only one to see these glaringly obvious errors?  Surely we should be looking to cast our net far and wide to attract the biggest audience to our sport...or am I missing something?

Day five of our summer sabbatical and there are five meetings on the level to keep us entertained.  They are from Musselburgh, Brighton, Lingfield, Newmarket and Haydock - once again there is an excellent piece of race planning with Lingfield and Brighton within relatively close proximity of each other.  Am I the only one to see these glaringly obvious errors?  Surely we should be looking to cast our net far and wide to attract the biggest audience to our sport...or am I missing something?

Happy birthday to owner Sean Tracey who is 47 today.  Sean has had some cracking good horses with us since joining the Pond House team including His Excellency (pictured right).  I must ask him how he managest to stay looking so young.  Perhaps it is the Scottish air?  Or maybe it's his very glamorous young wife Josie?  Anyway, many happy returns Sean - we hope you have a great day!

I don't like to have a pop at the jockeys but if you backed Joys Of Spring at Yarmouth yesterday you would be feeling justifiably hard done by.  The 8/13 favourite did not get the best of rides and the racing channels were bombarded with texts and e-mails about the 7lbs apprentice on board.  I guess you know you are taking a chance when you back a short one with an inexperienced jockey on board - a more seasoned pilot would definitely have won on teh three year old.  On the plus side, he looks like a winner without a penalty and you should get your money back on him next time.

It is the Shergar Cup at Ascot tomorrow and I know a lot of people scoff at the concept, however racing needs all the publicity it can get so any new incentive has to be worth supporting.  Television figures tell you that the sport is not as popular as it once was - perhaps more of the courses should follow Towcester's example and offer a few days of free admission to racegoers?  If they are first time racegoers they might be paying visitors next time.  It also stands to reason that there should be at least one jump meeting on a Saturday or a Sunday when most people can get to go to the races.  Racing needs all the help it can get and we need to make sure that the sport is as accessible as possible.

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Onto cricket and the pitch for the fourth Test match at Old Trafford looks like an absolute beauty  If you have tickets for the fifth day I think I would be inclined to make other arrangements as the ball is swinging all over the place.  Stuart Broad took six wickets for just twenty-five runs as England skittled out India for just 152 runs, while we are 113 for 3 in response.  If England can build a lead of 200 that would be a healthy lead and put us in a strong position to lead the series 2-1.  You might be able to tell that I backed England to win the series!

I must admit to having a little chuckle at former England captain Nasser Hussain's television commentary.  He said "Ravi Jadeja keeps getting out the same way - it must be a case of Jadeja Vu!"  Boom boom!

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Lee Westwood enjoyed a good day in the USPGA championships yesterday as he shot a cracking round of 65 - the question is, can he put four good rounds together?  McIlroy is only one shot behind and looking dangerous - he hits the ball so long and straight...I don't do either of those things!  Tiger Woods doesn't look anything like the player of old and a round of 74 would seem to confirm that his best days are behind him.  Even at the age of 51 Colin Montgomerie was able to shoot an under par round of 70.

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There was a surprise in the tennis yesterday as world number one Novak Djokovic crashed out of the Rogers Cup in Toronto 6-2 6-2 to Jo Wilfried Tsonga.  Tsonga now faces Andy Murray in the next round.  This has to be Murray's best chance of winning a title since claiming the 2013 Wimbledon crown.

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