Point Drama!

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with three flat cards from Leicester, Redcar and Lingfield as well as jumps action from Hexham and Huntingdon.  Typically, the most valuable meeting of the day takes place in Ireland as Ballinrobe hosts a very competitive card - the least valuable race is worth €6900 to the winner and that's a bumper!  As you would expect considering the money on offer, there is no shortage of runners.  David doesn't have any runners today, with his next representatives likely to be tomorrow at Cartmel or Newton Abbot.

Talking of Cartmel there is a great picture of the track on the front page of this morning's Racing Post as they held their Bank Holiday Monday card.  The course is an absolute nightmare to get to and you will probably have to ditch your car in a lane some way from the track, but I can strongly recommend a visit to anybody looking to attend a race meeting with a unique atmosphere.  It is an extremely rustic place and the course almost looks as though it goes through local resident's back gardens!  The picture in the paper shows standing room only, even in the middle of the course, but they pull out all the stops with trade stands, bars and a funfair to name but a few of the attractions - fun for the whole family.  If you can abide the traffic, it is a great place to visit.

There was plenty of drama for the thronging masses at the point-to-point at Upcott Cross yesterday when the restricted race was declared void amidst controversial circumstances.  The fourteen runners completed two laps of the track and only had three left to jump when the majority of the field pulled up having been stopped by the flag man.  It transpired that although one (mulish) runner had been left at the start, the starter claimed that he had not sent the runners on their way, even though the recall man had run out of the way when the field departed.  I doubt whether this will be the last we hear on the matter.

*****

It was a good day for our assistant Oliver Defew yesterday as his beloved Norwich won their playoff final 2-0 against Middlesbrough to go straight back into the Premier League.  He's a good chap so you can't hold his questionable choice of football team against him, especially as I have a little side interest with him about this season's champion jockey.  With Richard Johnson currently blazing a trail I reckon I am sitting pretty.

*****

What about the cricket yesterday?  England pulled off a somewhat surprising victory as they beat the Kiwis by 124 runs in the first Test match.  At least this is a series they cannot now lose (there are only two matches)!  Bookies reacted by shortening England for the Ashes series against the Aussies.  While I hope this is the start of an amazing turnaround, I cannot help but think this is a false dawn and we are going to be on the end of a good hiding at the hands of the Australians.

*****

Finally, a useless thought for the day...did you know that a duck's quack doesn't echo?  I don't know which scientific genius has discovered that, but he must be quackers!  Have a nice day...

 Tweet