A Day To Remember!

It's a busy day ahead with eight meetings taking place and yes, there are a couple of jumps cards among them!  The six flat meetings come from Newbury, Newmarket, Chester, Ripon, Haydock and Lingfield while the National Hunt action comes from Market Rasen and Cartmel.  David runs Kie and Purple 'N Gold in the Summer Hurdle at 2.55pm and Dell' Arca in the Summer Plate at 3.30pm - both look extremely competitive races as you would expect for the sums of prize money on offer.  Dell' Arca (pictured above) is the shortest priced of ours at around 9/1 and he was a ready winner of a novices' chase last time out and he might be okay from a mark of 142.  He has run creditably in most of the big handicap hurdles and some of his chase form has also worked out nicely.  Kie makes his debut for the stable in the hurdle, while Purple 'N Gold finished runner-up in the race last year (albeit from a 7lbs lower mark) - he always runs his race and I am sure he will perform creditably again this afternoon.

Meanwhile up at Cartmel the stable has two runners: Street Entertainer reverts back to hurdles for the lady riders' race at 4.25pm and he will be ridden by Welsh ladies' point-to-point champion Jodie Hughes, while Willem goes in the following handicap hurdle which has a very attractive first prize of over £16,500.  He showed a bit of improvement at Newton Abbot last time but unfortunately he 'bumped into one' in the way of a well handicapped Group 3 winner from the level - a reproduction of that form would give him claims under Michael Heard.

We left the stable yesterday at 7am and flew to Ireland for what was a memorable visit to some of the top racing establishments in the country.  It was a really bumpy ride, especially going across Dublin.  We landed at Gordon Elliott's yard and I have to say that I was very impressed by his set-up.  He has built a very good training complex and it looks like he is far from finished yet as there is still loads of building work going on.

We then went on to the Gigginstown operation just down the road and there is only one word to describe it, magnificent.  5 years on and there was not even a blade of grass out of place and it is a huge credit to Eddie O'Leary (Michael's brother) who oversees the operation of the place.  I took a great picture (right) of Eddie with MCP and Gordon and his star chaser Don Cossack.

Finally, it was over to see Tom Taaffe's fantastic establishment before it was time to return home.  It was a wonderful experience and I would like to thank everyone for their most kind hospitality in making us feel so welcome.

*****

The big question currently on my mind is how on earth did England manage to win the first Ashes Test against the Australians at Cardiff?  In the first innings of the second Test, Australia made 566, while England in reply are struggling on 85-4.  It is the flatest pitch you have ever seen, yet our batsmen are making it look decidedly tricky.  It would seem that our only hope of a result is if the rain comes to save us - I don't think our batsmen are going to be much help!

*****

What about the weather at St Andrews?  It was Tom Watson's final round in our Open and he is now going to retire.  He is 65 years old and has been a legend of the game.  I think Tiger Woods should think about doing the same thing - watching him yesterday it would appear that he cannot even chip any more!  He has completely lost it.

There was a great quote from Dwight D Eisenhower that always amuses me.  He said, "I gave up golf for painting because it takes me less strokes!"  I can certainly identify with that!

Tweet