A Famous Victory

I do not frequent the races anywhere near as often as I used to but it was great to catch up with a lot of old friends yesterday at Plumpton.  We had a good winner in Famousandfearless who was the winner of the novices' handicap chase.  Although owned by the Bravo Partnership he carried the colours of the late and much missed David Johnson of which DJ was a member.  He gave 8lbs and a beating to Jewellery which I think was quite a decent performance...and just to clarify, the horse was not named after Luke Harvey!  Meanwhile Purple 'N Gold ran another good race to finish a close third in the handicap hurdle - the trouble is that he hardly ever runs a bad race and will likely face another couple of pounds rise in the weights for this.

I do not frequent the races anywhere near as often as I used to but it was great to catch up with a lot of old friends yesterday at Plumpton.  We had a good winner in Famousandfearless who was the winner of the novices' handicap chase.  Although owned by the Bravo Partnership he carried the colours of the late and much missed David Johnson of which DJ was a member.  He gave 8lbs and a beating to Jewellery which I think was quite a decent performance...and just to clarify, the horse was not named after Luke Harvey!  Meanwhile Purple 'N Gold ran another good race to finish a close third in the handicap hurdle - the trouble is that he hardly ever runs a bad race and will likely face another couple of pounds rise in the weights for this.

Talking of Purple 'N Gold, we were somewhat puzzled as to why the horse started to play up in the saddling boxes before the race.  He was kicking and bucking while we were trying to tack him up and in the end we found a wasps nest in the box.  The horse ran out and had to be saddled outside, fortunately he was not stung.

Meanwhile Tom Scu continued his good run of form by riding a double courtesy of the aforementioned Famousandfearless and Russian Bolero for David Bridgwater.  Apparently connections have Triumph Hurdle pretentions for Russian Bolero - I am not sure he is that good, although obviously time will tell.

As you know, Martin is currently away in Hong Kong and yesterday he managed to convince Carol to let him go on a trip to Sha Tin racecourse...talk about a busman's holiday!  Anyway, while they were out there they bumped into a few familiar names such as Sean Woods (pictured below) who gave up training in Newmarket in 2003 and is now a successful trainer in Hong Kong.  Prior to his training career he was a conditional jockey and in fact he rode a winner for Martin called Fandango Boy at Wincanton in 1988 - it's a small world isn't it?

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There were some interesting results to the football yesterday and it seems to me that both Manchester United and Liverpool are not in need of attackers - they both need defenders.  I have alway been of the opinion that you have to build a team from the back - both teams need a centre-half, goalkeeper and a couple of full backs.  Unfortunately Manchester United boss Louis Van Gaal is finding it difficult to comprehend that all of the teams in the Premier League can play!  It isn't like Spain, Italy or Germany where there are only a handful of teams at the top tier that are any good.  He spent £157 million on new talent but he doesn't seem to have a clue.

One thing that does amuse me though...where are all the Manchester United supporters when you need one?  Whenever they get beaten my United mates turn their phones off!  I wonder what they would have done to David Moyes if he had turned in these results?

There were good results too for West Brom who beat Spurs 1-0 and Crystal Palace who won against Everton, that is before we even mention my beloved West Ham who beat Liverpool 3-1...happy days!

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