Bella Our Southwell Runner

Well, it's the start of another week and we have four meetings to look forward to this afternoon with flat fixtures from Carlisle, Windsor and Nottingham as well as a jumps card from Southwell.  The stable has one runner this afternoon at Southwell as Bella (pictured above) takes in the mares' handicap hurdle at 4.00pm.  She won a valuable mares' race last time at Warwick and went up 5lbs for that effort which seems reasonable enough, although it does mean that she has top weight to shoulder here.  Dan Skelton's mare Shady Lane won last week and is turned out again quickly and looks to be the one we have to beat.

Richard Johnson is still flying along at the head of the jockeys' table and is now seventeen clear of nearest rival Sam Twiston-Davies.  His agent Dave Robert is doing a mighty job when you consider that during the entire course of last season Johnson had 102 rides more than Twiston-Davies - this year Johnson has ridden all but twice as many horses as his rival (149-75 as of this morning) and with more rides comes the possibility of more winners.  The team are so confident of success that Richard has been given the day off today!

Meanwhile David is still at the head of the trainers' table as he has won the most prize money this season, although numerically Dan Skelton has had most winners so far this term.  As you know, I have long held the view that both championships should be decided the same way and winners trained/ridden is by far the most logical and simplest method.

There is an excellent pull-out in today's Racing Post ahead of the five day Royal Ascot meeting which begins tomorrow.  It's a must for people who like a wager on the big fixture and there are some interesting prices on offer.  Ryan Moore is too short at 4/9, although the likes of Paul Hannagan at 20's and Frankie Dettori at 8's could be worth an interest.

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The Euro Qualifier between England and Slovenia was entertaining with England prevailing 3-2.  Having said that, I don't think that either team will be challenging for the title.  Phil Jones and Chris Smalling would not get into too many other international sides.  You can see why Manchester United are in desperate need of a striker for while Rooney did score, he missed countless other opportunities.  You can't compare him to the likes of England legends like Jimmy Greaves or Gary Lineker - I guess I had better apologise to my old mate Tony Lomas for that one!

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It seems that 300 runs is no longer enough runs to win a one day cricket match.  England scored 302 in their latest match against New Zealand yet the Kiwi's still managed to beat that total with relative ease.

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It was good to see golfer Chris Wood win the Lyoness Open in Austria at the weekend.  He has been away from golf with a broken wrist so this was a tremendous effort.

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Did you know that in Los Angeles there are more cars than drivers?  I wonder who drives them all?!

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