Unanimité's Great Debut

Saturday provided the yard with yet another success as Unanimité was the impressive winner of the juvenile hurdle at Market Rasen.  Considering this was his first start over hurdles his jumping was extremely good and he showed a good turn of speed in the closing stages to stretch right away from his rivals under Tom Scudamore.  Although it is still early days, he looks to be the best three year old hurdler we have seen so far this season and there is no reason why he should not continue to improve as he gains further experience and he is clearly another exciting young prospect.

Meanwhile Purple 'N Gold ran yet another good race to finish runner-up in the Listed hurdle.  He may not be the easiest to win with, but he hardly ever seems to run a bad race.  The only trouble is that he is creeping up the weights all the time - even so, he remains competitive in these decent races and he thoroughly deserves to get his head in front once again...second place prize money of £7,500 is certainly worth winning.  Houston Dynimo ran another mighty race in the Listed chase and it looked as though he would win the race halfway up the run-in.  He was swallowed up close home to eventually finish third, but there is every reason to think that he too can continue to be competitive.  When you think that both he and Purple 'N Gold were obtained from a selling hurdle and flat claimer respectively, they are perfect examples of our good track record of getting the right horse for the right sort of money.

There are three meetings taking place this afternoon, two on the level from Bath and Hamilton and a jumps card from our local track at Newton Abbot.  As usually seems the case, Newton Abbot have the most prize money on offer and present the perfect model for how a small racecourse should be run.  The stable has one runner; Northern Bay who participates in the 4.30pm race - our four year old finished second at the track last time out and we will be hoping for a good run from him this afternoon.

In the end it was all rather for easy for Europe in the Ryder Cup - Rory McIlroy looked different class to most of his contemporaries but for me the star of the show was Jamie Donaldson who looks to be the most improved player about at the moment, while Justin Rose was solid as usual.  I wonder if A P McCoy's golf game will have improved at all?  The champion jockey was up at Gleneagles yesterday - I suppose if he finishes with the same ball that he started with, that would be considered an improvement.

Talking of golf, has anyone seen the golfing holiday advert that finished 'Tell them Darren sent you'?  Darren should bring out a workout DVD...how much weight has he lost?!

*****

Can anyone tell me if a footballer were to be banned for three matches (a la Wayne Rooney), do you still collect your £300,000 per week pay packet?  None of my mates seem to know.

*****

I was watching a fascinating boxing match between Paul Smith and Arthur Abraham at the weekend and it was a close fight, however the judges had Abraham winning by 119-109, 117-111 & 117-111.  It certainly wasn't an accurate reflection of the bout and as far as I am concerned all three judges should be banned from ever judging again.  Why do boxers go and fight in Germany?  You have to knock them out to get a draw!

*****

The Miami Dolphins hammered the Oakland Raiders at Wembley last night and as far as I can tell, it's rugby with crash helmets on! Only 83,436 people turned up, including James from our office - he tells me that it was a fantastic occasion.

?