Haydock Glory?

Day four of our Summer sabbatical and there are six flat meetings taking place on the level with the action coming from Brighton, Haydock, Wolverhampton, Sandown, Southwell and Newcastle.  I could tell you straight away without looking who would be offering the lowest prize money - Newcastle have just £30,000 up for grabs across their seven race card.  The stable has a rare flat runner this afternoon as Race To Glory competes in the 1m6f handicap at Haydock at 5.10pm - he has his first start on the flat since finishing runner-up at Thirsk in September of last year, the form of which has turned out okay with the horses finishing first and third both winning subsequently.  He will be partnered by former stable amateur Mikey Ennis who teamed up with David earlier in the flat season for a success at Windsor.

I see that Ruby Walsh is flying out to Australia to ride in their Grand National.  He has come in for the ride aboard twelve year old Bashboy who has already won the race twice.  Should Walsh be successful he would have won five different Nationals and that would be a truly unique achievement.  Having said that, it is a long way to go for just one ride!

It's a strange old world we are living in!  It is supposed to be the middle of summer and here we are with heavy ground and an inspection at Sligo.  I remember when we used to worry about the ground being too firm during the summer but that seems like a distant memory now.  Some people might say that Ireland is a strange old place, I had better be careful what I say as I did once represent the Irish against China back in my ping pong days!

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The weather is looking pretty dingy and if that keeps up it could mean that England will win the Ashes.  The fourth match starts today at Trent Bridge and England are still as big as 9/4 for victory with the Aussies as short as even money.  The bookies clearly think that England's successes have been flukes!  I wonder if they can fluke another result and win the series?!

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My beloved West Ham look like they are on their way out of the Europa League.  They are only taking seven of their first team players with them as they travel to Romania with the score standing at 2-2 after the first leg.  It would seem that most of these Premier managers have no interest in this competition - the Premier League starts on Saturday and I would have thought the last thing anybody would want is to be travelling a few days before that.

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Over in America I see that second seed, Scottish tennis player Andy Murray was knocked out in the second round of the tournament taking place over there.  He will become British as soon as he starts winning again!

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Finally, what is worse than finding a maggot in your apple?  Finding half a maggot - I'm back on form!

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