Runners Under Both Codes!

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with three of them on the level from Catterick, Windsor and Wolverhampton as well as a jumps card from Ffos Las.  The stable runs one on the level at Windsor and one in the bumper at Ffos Las.  Dalgig makes his debut for the stable at Windsor having been claimed last time - this is tougher, although he is a course and distance winner and will enjoy the soft ground - he looks to have each way prospects at odds of around 7/1.  Meanwhile For 'N' Against makes his racecourse debut in the bumper at Ffos Las and while he will learn from the experience you can never discount the stable runners in these events as David has an enviable record in these contests over the last few years.

I have long said that we need to encourage more young people on to the racecourse and it seems like Martin is setting about the task all by himself.  Only on Sunday we were at Aintree and the former champion trainer spotted a couple of young lads (pictured above) near the statue of Grand National and promptly posed for a picture with them.  The lads couldn't decide who was older, 'Rummy' or MCP although that isn't even close...sorry Martin!  A P McCoy is another who always has time for his massive fan base, although as far as I can tell other racing personalities should be doing more to get the racegoers of tomorrow interested in racing today

I always used to think that Catterick racecourse was a place that trainers took their quirky horses to run although these days I am not so sure.  I see that today they have more prize money on offer than any of the other meetings so credit where it is due, they deserve a good turnout.  Meanwhile, stable jockey Tom Scu has picked up another couple of nice outside rides for Rebecca Curtis with Audacious Plan in particular looking to have a good chance.

I will be joining David and Martin at the sales in Newmarket today.  They came back from the sales empty handed yesterday although David tells me that he made the best purchase of the day - a pint of lager!  A lot of the horses seem to have been bought to go abroad with plenty of them destined for Australia.  I know David and Martin have been doing plenty of work on the catalogue so hopefully their efforts will come to fruition this afternoon.

'Arry will be twitching a lot less this morning after QPR beat Aston Villa 2-0 last night.  Austin Powers scored both of their goals to lift QPR away from the bottom of the Premier League.  Mind you, it still looks as though they have a lot of work to do before they get out of trouble, while Villa appear to be in freefall - I hope a few of you followed me and had a few quid on Harry's boys.  There seemed to be more shirt pulling and holding in the penalty area than ever - why don't the referees go into the changing rooms before the matches and tell both teams that this sort of incident will result in a penalty?  Give out a few penalties and I'm sure it will stop!

It's Capital One Cup day so it means that a lot of the Premier League sides will be playing their reserves!  If they turned out their first teams West Brom at 15/8, Fulham at 8/5 and Chelsea at 3/10 would make for a tasty treble, but you are taking a punt as to whether any of these teams really want to be in this competition!