Weekend Jottings!

Today we have three meetings and the really good news is that two of them are over the jumps!  The flat card is from Redcar, while the jumping action comes from Newton Abbot and Stratford.  David has one runner this afternoon, Brenda de Ronceray who takes in the closing bumper at 5.05pm and Tom Scudamore is on board.  She was far from disgraced on her debut at Worcester and hopefully that experience will have done her the world of good.  I see that Barry Geraghty goes to Newton Abbot for just one ride - it looks like a nice, easy start to his retainer as JP's number one jockey!

In yesterday's blog I was telling you all about our visit to Ireland on Friday and I have another picture (above) to bring you today.  It was of Gordon Elliott's string using an adapted stream to walk his horses through after exercise.  It was about 8 feet across and 3 feet deep and the horses really looked to be enjoying it - furthermore it meant that staff didn't have to wash legs down and therefore saved time.  Meanwhile in another part of the stream Gordon had built a small box in which he could stand horses with sore shins - as you can tell, I was very impressed with my trip to Ireland!

It didn't come as the biggest surprise to hear yesterday that Richard Hughes is going to retire after Glorious Goodwood in a fortnight's time.  The three time champion jockey has decided that in order to get his training career off to the best possible start next season, he needs to be giving it all of his attention now.  It is a sensible decision, although I will miss watching his genius in the saddle.  With Ryan Moore also looking likely to miss some considerable time with his neck injury my bet on de Sousa is looking better all the time, while in the jumps standings Richard Johnson is comfortably clear (27) of his rivals and my money looks fairly safe there.

I have been reading the Ken Payne story with interest in the Racing Post.  It must have been great getting large sums of money on at decent odds.  My local betting shop restricted my maximum bet to £100 and then to £20.  Imagine walking into a betting shop and trying to get £1,000 on at 8/1- they would offer you a tenner at SP these days!  How times have changed.

*****

Why on earth would Bournemouth want Scott Parker from Fulham?  He was slow at West Ham and he has become even slower since his time at Fulham.  He has been a good player down the years, although he is not Premiership caliber these days and at 34 years of age he isn't getting any younger.

*****

I was once told that conversation interferes with most people's golf, although in the case of Lee Trevino, it would appear that golf interferes with his conversations with Retief Goosen!

Tweet