Day One At Aintree

It's a big day today with the start of the Grand National meeting from Aintree.  The supporting action comes from a jumps card at Taunton as well as a couple of flat fixtures at Chelmsford and Southwell.  The stable has runners at Aintree and Taunton - at Aintree we are represented by Stars Over The Sea, Ballynagour, Unique de Cotte, Serienschock and Bygones Sovereign, while at Taunton we run Softsong, Willem, All Force Majeure and Multimedia.  Unique de Cotte (pictured above) will be ridden by champion jockey A P McCoy for his boss J P McManus and I think he will run a big race with the trip and flat track looking ideal to me.

Thursday always seems to be the quietest of the three days at Aintree, while Friday always fills up with orange tinted ladies with barely any clothes on (even if it is cold or raining!).  You do get some very nice fillies at Aintree on Friday...I will leave you to make your own minds up about that one!  Meanwhile on Saturday the place is like a mad house - there are people everywhere and the best place to watch the big race is on the television.  It is a completely different buzz to the Cheltenham Festival and I wouldn't be at all surprised if a large majority of the Aintree spectators do not go racing at any other time of the year.  With any luck in running, I am sure that David will pull a winner out of the bag from somewhere - he has had the horses in good form for the duration of the season and an Aintree winner would just cap a great year.

We have stayed with owners Gino and Jeanette Paletta for the last fifteen years and they have always looked after us extremely well...you know what the Italians are like.  Gino's place is only five minutes away from Aintree.  It is a meeting that I always look forward to and with Liverpool reaching the semi-finals of the FA Cup after beating Blackburn last night, there are even more reasons for the Scousers to be in great heart today.

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It is the start of the US Masters Golf today from Augusta and Rory McIlroy tees off at about 3.45pm.  My golfing mates tell me that former world number one Tiger Woods will not make the cut, although I am not so sure.  Although he clearly has some physical problems, I think as many of his problems are in his head...if he gets a good start, it could be okay for him.

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Many happy returns to former Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler who is 40 today.  Robbie had some good horses at Pond House down the years in partnership with Steve McManaman including Seebald and Auetaler.  I will probably see him at the track this afternoon.

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I believe in reincarnation.  That is why I have decided to leave everything to myself in my will!  Have a nice day...

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