Folkestone Blackout!

I had just settled in for the afternoon to watch racing from Folkestone on the television and I couldn't believe my eyes - no pictures, just a commentary!  It was just like going back 25 years in time to when there were no pictures in the betting shops.  While the racecourse commentators do a very good job (and in fairness make a very difficult job sound very easy) it is not the same as getting pictures from the course - with pictures you can see if your horse is in trouble some way out, but with commentary only, it seems as though the caller is trying to make it sound as though every horse still has a chance!

I thought that ex French/Swiss Roi de Rose ran a decent race on his debut for the stable yesterday.  He had won his last three starts in Switzerland on good ground but the going at Folkestone looked pretty testing and he just got tired in the straight.  I thought that there was more than enough to suggest that he will be up to winning in this country.

It was good to have racing back on yesterday and the biggest problem with racing resuming after cancellations is the size of fields.  Newbury has attracted 122 runners this afternoon and there are no fewer than sixteen runners in the novices' chase - let's just hope that they all jump well!  A P McCoy misses Newbury this afternoon and rides instead at Bangor - I would imagine that it would certainly be worth keeping an eye on his mounts there.

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I see that it is Jamie Evans' birthday today.  The "Fat Antipodean" as he was nicknamed, rode for MCP for a few years and enjoyed his biggest win aboard Big Strand in the Coral Cup at the Cheltenham Festival.  Jamie was a real character, and an Aussie who could get you into some serious trouble - I still remember when he booked himself onto a Qantas flight home - he upgraded his seat and told the airline that I was his manager and would pay the difference!  You can imagine what I told Qantas!  Anyway happy birthday mate!

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I have a couple of pictures from the gallops to share with you this morning.  The first is of Notus de la Tour, who is entered in the Ladbroke at Ascot on Saturday while the other is of Choumakeur.

  
Above left: Notus de la Tour and right: Choumakeur on the gallops