- Thursday, 09 December 2010 08:03
- Written by Chester Barnes
Sadly Huntingdon had to abandon today's meeting yesterday, but the good news is that they have taken a leaf out of Exeter's book and are going to try to reschedule the meeting for this Sunday. Let's hope that it can go ahead - it would be a shame to lose the meeting, especially as they have the Grade 2 Peterborough Chase on the card. The race is worth £65,000 to the winner, and even the bumper on the card is worth £2,000 - that's better than some of the all-weather flat races!
- Wednesday, 08 December 2010 08:54
- Written by Chester Barnes
Just when I thought that the snow and ice had done it's worst to affect the racing calendar, yesterday Mother Nature threw freezing fog into the mix to call a halt to Southwell's all-weather meeting. Fortunately they managed to run the first three races which meant that one of my selections, Love Delta was able to score at the rewarding odds of 4/1. It was good to see the Mark Johnston runner bounding out of the fog to score by five lengths, although you could clearly see (or not!) that it was too dangerous to carry on racing.
- Tuesday, 07 December 2010 08:21
- Written by Chester Barnes
Well, England managed to win the second Test match against the Australians by an innings and 71 runs, and following his efforts with bat and ball I was amused to see Kevin Pietersen (tongue firmly in cheek) refer to himself as an all-rounder! Remember, England only need to draw the series to retain the Ashes, but wouldn't it be great to win the series outright? I have a few Aussie mates who have given me quite a lot of stick down the years, but funnily enough I haven't heard much from them recently. Fortunately Ricky Ponting is going through a torrid time with the bat, but even so, Australia look to be a poor outfit...so now we have got them down, let's tread on them!
- Monday, 06 December 2010 08:29
- Written by Chester Barnes
There are two all-weather meetings on this afternoon at Southwell and Lingfield (Lingfield passed a 6am inspection). Interestingly, Southwell plays host to three National Hunt Flat races on it's card and they have attracted fields of 14,10 and 9. The three year old bumper has the most runners so it looks like these races are obviously needed. I would think that if one of the all-weather tracks were to put on three or four races like this once a week they would be well supported. Even champion jockey A P McCoy has a couple of rides, so this initiative should be something that the planning committee should consider doing on a regular basis.
- Sunday, 05 December 2010 00:00
- Written by Chester Barnes
I was looking through the Racing Post yesterday at AP's ten best rides and four of them were aboard horses that were trained by MCP. I hate to argue with the great man, but I have to say that I think the ride that he gave Deano's Beeno when he outsmarted Thierry Doumen aboard Baracouda had to be one of the best that I have seen - he stole a long lead and the French raider was never quite going to get back to him. Although not his favourite success, AP picks out his ride aboard Pridwell as his best race ride. The pair beat the mighty Istabraq at Aintree - now Pridwell was a real character, but he had masses of ability and on this day McCoy managed to coax it all out of him to deny the triple Champion Hurdle winner.
- Saturday, 04 December 2010 08:44
- Written by Chester Barnes
They say that too many cooks spoil the broth...well the old adage certainly doesn't apply to cricket! Alastair Cook has been in fantastic form for England against the Aussies in the second Test of the Ashes series. Following his magnificent 235 not out at the Gabba, he finished the second day at Adelaide unbeaten on 136, while it was also good to see Pietersen coming back to the form he showed about four years ago with a knock of 85 not out. England will resume tomorrow on 317-2, with a first innings lead of 72 - a very promising position indeed. For all that England have played superbly, I do feel that the Australian bowling attack is probably the worst I have ever seen. A couple of years ago the skipper would just have thrown the ball to Shane Warne, and to be honest Warney would probably still be better than the bowlers they have now!
- Friday, 03 December 2010 08:25
- Written by Chester Barnes
I was amazed as I was watching the coverage of the 2018/22 World Cup bids yesterday to discover how everyone knew who hadn't made it through the first round of voting before the result was announced. Everyone already seemed to know that Russia was going to be hosting the 2018 event and Qatar the 2022 contest. It seems a huge coincidence that everyone was praising England's presentation, yet we only polled two votes. It was widely acknowledged that ours was technically the best bid, and financially the most profitable for FIFA - so it begs the question, how could we fail so spectacularly? I don't suppose the fighting in Birmingham the evening before or the Panorama programme broadcast earlier in the week investigating FIFA really helped matters, but even so it is difficult to believe that it made that much difference to the result. It is a great shame as it now means that England will not host a World Cup until at least 2030 and I will be a ripe old age by then!
