First Day Of The Sales!

There are three meetings taking place this afternoon with two on the level from Leicester and Redcar as well as a National Hunt fixture from Ayr. There is also the small matter of the Tattersalls Newmarket Horses In Training sale starting today and carrying on through until Thursday - as I write this David and Martin will already be on their way to the Suffolk town in the hope of finding some more equine stars for the jumps game.  I know that David and the team have done plenty of work on the catalogue so if you are interested in purchasing a horse from the largest in training sale in the world, do give us a call on 01884 840715.

Of our runners at the weekend we enjoyed a comfortable success on the level with Low Key on his stable debut at Newbury, while Vieux Lion Rouge ran a good race to finish third in the ultra competitive Silver Trophy handicap hurdle at Chepstow on Saturday.  Unanimité finished runner-up at Aintree yesterday and looked as though he would be better going the other way around - he looked as though he might win jumping the last but this was still a fair performance conceding weight to the winner Starchitect and he remains a very useful juvenile hurdler.  Over at Wincanton Vazaro de Lafayette produced his best effort to date over timber when finishing third in the handicap hurdle over 2m6f, while Famousandfearless wasn't beaten all that far into fifth in the Desert Orchid Chase.

Up at Aintree yesterday I was pleased to catch up with Sue and Harvey Smith (pictured above).  I told Harvey that he was one of my school boy heroes - he just laughed and told me that he was the same age as me!  What a legend he is...

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There was a good result for Manchester United in the match against Chelsea yesterday as they earned a point with an equaliser in time added on yesterday.  The way goal scorer Van Persie celebrated, you would have thought they had won the Premier League!  The United defense is terrible and I think they will continue to struggle until that is rectified.

Meanwhile there was a great win for the Hammers over the weekend as they beat Manchester City - and yes, I did have a little bit on them at 11/2!  At £4.6million Sakho must be the buy of the year.  Even Valencia at £15million is starting to look cheap - I know we are still talking telephone numbers here, but relatively speaking these are bargain prices for the Premiership.  The real deal however looks to be Alex Song - he could play for any team in the Premiership and look good - let's hope the Hammers can secure a permanent deal with him.

Tonight QPR take on Aston Villa and I can see 'Arry twitching more than ever if the match is close!  I think they have played better than some of their results would suggest and they could be worth an interest at odds of around 7/5.  I love Harry Redknapp's quote when asked about those results, "We'd have won if we hadn't lost!"  Good old East London boy!

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Andy Murray was successful in the Valencia Open at the weekend - he is now fifth in qualifying for the World Tour finals in London.  Mind you, he did look exhausted in beating Tommy Robredo, although he was more mobile than his mother Judy in Strictly Come Dancing.  I am still not convinced that he is back to his Wimbledon winning form.