Fakenham, Warwick Runners

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with two National Hunt cards from Fakenham and Warwick as well as all-weather flat cards from Southwell and Chelmsford City.  That all pales into the shade alongside Ireland's meeting from Gowran Park which boasts prize money of £215,000 - not bad at all for a Thursday!  The stable has runners at both jumps meetings this afternoon; Molo runs at Warwick and our five year old mare is on something of a recovery mission after disappointing at Fontwell last time out having previously won her first two starts.  She will be partnered by Conor O'Farrell.  Meanwhile, over at Fakenham Tom Scudamore is aboard Rathlin Rose and Twentytwo's Taken for the stable.  Rathlin Rose (pictured above) was a ready winner last time at Taunton, while Twentytwo's Taken had some very decent bumper form in Ireland and makes her debut for the Pond House team this afternoon.

Both Tom's mounts look to have good chances today which is just as well as he will need to pay for more diesel!  Tom is certainly putting a few miles on his car at the moment - he was riding at Ayr yesterday and while he rode a winner, it could quite easily have been a double.  Just think, you could buy Tom's one owner car - the only problems I can tell are the slightly inflated mileage and the fact that it is white and looks like it has never been cleaned!  Maybe he will treat it to a valet if he wins today?!

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I see that Peter Alliss has been having a go at the BBC for not doing enough to retain the rights to the Open Golf.  Personally, I think if I were Peter Alliss I would be thankful that I had a job for all those years.  I am not bothered if it is on Sky or BBC, just so long as either broadcaster shows plenty of play.  In fact, when Alliss is babbling on I often turn the sound down!

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I find it hard to believe that all of the Premier League teams appear in the top 40 richest teams in the world.  Real Madrid are top, while Manchester United are second...which surprises me as I thought they were up to their eyeballs in debt.

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It seems to me that the sport of tennis is becoming something of a closed shop.  You can pick out the tournament semi-finalists in most of the competitions - even if they are injured!  British ladies' tennis star Heather Watson says that her poor form is down to her cycle.  I wonder why she doesn't change it for a treadmill?  Another problem sorted out over a period of time by the Chester Barnes Consultancy!