Bidourey Runs At Sandown

It has been a quiet start to the week but the stable has it's first runners since Monday this afternoon.  There are four meetings taking place with jumps cards from Sandown and Fakenham as well as all-weather flat cards from Lingfield and Wolverhampton.  The stable runs Bidourey at Sandown and our promising four year old is unbeaten in his four starts to date.  The Racing Post make our charge a 4/9 chance and while he is a worthy favourite, I am not sure it is that cut and dried - Restraint Of Trade was a 95 rated flat performer.  Even so, with a hurdle rating of 137 Bidourey should win if the handicapper is right.

Looking back at yesterday's action I see that Sir Mark Prescott's filly Sea Pride finished third in the bumper at Fontwell.  I am not sure how much strength in depth there was to the race as there was only five lengths covering the first five home.  Meanwhile earlier on the card James Best gave Strawberry Hill an excellent ride to win the handicap chase - he was already riding his mount going to the first and this was definitely the ride of the week (sorry AP!).

Talking of AP, I see that Kelso gave him a bag of carrots yesterday after his victory aboard Holywell.  They normally give the carrots to the winning trainer so I am not quite sure why they gave them to AP.  They obviously felt that he deserved them, or maybe they just think he has bad eyesight?!

*****

Former England cricketing legend Geoffrey Boycott has been stirring things up with his comments about Eoin Morgan by saying "he is not as good as he thinks he is".  I have known a lot of sportsmen down the years who have thought this about themselves, but one thing is for sure Boycott knows how to stick the boot in.  I have to agree with him I'm afraid and there are a few more of our batsman to whom the same comments could also apply.

*****

It seems to me that every football job that comes up at the moment, Tim Sherwood is the favourite to fill the vacancy!  Despite still being out of work, Sherwood is now the 11/20 favourite to get that Aston Villa managers job.  The trouble is that the team look destined for relegation - let's hope that the new boss will get a fair crack of the whip, perhaps with a clause in their contract exempting them from blame in the event that the club does go down?

*****

I see that the man at Jodrill Bank says that they are looking for intelligent life on other planets.  Why don't they look for some on this planet?!  Listening to him, it sounds like his place of work was named after him!  Have a nice day...