Four At Market Rasen

There is an exciting afternoon of racing to look forward to today with five cards on the level from Newmarket, Haydock, Chester, Ripon and Wolverhampton as well as a quality jumps meeting from Market Rasen which features three races on Channel 4 (two of which are Listed contests).  The stable has four runners this afternoon and they are all televised so I will be able to watch closely - the only trouble is I am going to have to tear myself away from the Ryder Cup to watch them!  Our representatives today are: Unanimité, Purple 'N Gold, Shotavodka and Houston Dynimo (pictured above).  Purple 'N Gold never seems to run a bad race and finished a close third last time at Plumpton from this mark of 119 - he has to turn the form around with Cool Sky but the likely frenetic pace should suit him and there will certainly be worse 16/1 chances than him.

Yesterday's runners both finished third at Worcester and I thought they ran okay.  Moncarno showed plenty of improvement from his racecourse debut and he clearly enjoyed this sounder surface and should improve further when posed with a stiffer test of stamina.  Party Girls could not follow-up her Newton Abbot success under a penalty but ran a fair enough race to finish third in the handicap hurdle, although she was beaten quite a long way.  She is only a seller and I would love to know how the handicaper has come up with a 14lbs rise for her.  If she couldn't win yesterday she is highly unlikely to win again from an even higher mark.

A P McCoy was on the mark with a double yesterday, one of which was called Nearest The Pin - appropriate really when you consider the Ryder Cup action that is currently taking place.  That sounds like Mrs Barnes' methodology when it comes to picking winners!

It is very sad to hear that Toby Balding had passed away on Thursday at the age of 78.  Toby would always speak to me at the races and I never once heard him say a bad word about anybody.  A P McCoy always held him in high esteem, unsurprising when you consider that it was him who brought the champ over from Ireland and mentored him when he was a mere conditional jockey.  A great trainer and a lovely man - he will be very much missed by the entire racing community.

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It was a good result for the European's to get out of Day One of the Ryder Cup with a 5-3 lead.  I didn't think that Poulter played that well yesterday and I don't think I would have picked him to play with McIlroy today.  For what it is worth (and based on yesterday's showing that is probably not very much!) I will be backing Westwood and Donaldson and Rose and Stenson - these look two solid pairings.

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Onto football and I will be backing Southampton at 1/2, Manchester City at 4/7, Ayr at 8/13 and Arbroath...you heard it here first!  While we are on the subject of football, I am very jealous of David's secretary Gemma who is on her way up to Old Trafford to watch Manchester United take on my beloved Hammers.  I would imagine that come 5pm tonight, one of us is going to be bitterly disappointed.  Having said that, if United can't beat Leicester having held a 3-1 lead, what do West Ham have to worry about?!

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Thought for the day...the difference between learning to play golf and learning to drive a car is that you never hit anything playing golf!

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