Weekend Jottings!

There are three meetings taking place this afternoon with action from Beverley, Goodwood and Yarmouth so yet more flat action and nothing over the sticks.  Even so, it is good that racing resumes at Yarmouth - they have relaid the surface and it has taken time for the grass to grow back.  There is a competitive card today and hopefully the new surface will get the thumbs up from those competing and ensure that it is well supported in the future.  ARC could certainly do with taking a leaf out of their book - the ground at Brighton on Tuesday was atrocious and the meeting had to survive no fewer than five inspections before being given the go-ahead.  I suppose ARC was quite appropriate as the animals were coming home two by two!

I have attended a few stewards enquiries down the years and have wondered for some considerable time why they are conducted by a bunch of part-time former public schoolboys and not by retired jockeys?  Surely a retired jockey would be more clued-up about what goes on in a race or is that just another crazy Barnes brainwave?!

Tom Dascombe's popular flat stayer Brown Panther did a public exercise gallop at Newmarket on Friday.  I don't think there were quite 15,000 people in attendance although I am sure there were more than a few interested parties.  Following an injury scare earlier in the season which ruled him out of the Ascot Gold Cup, he is being aimed at a repeat bid in the Irish St Leger at the Currragh on September 12th.  The Newmarket gallop was a 340 mile round trip from Cheshire - we sometimes take our horses to Exeter, but that is about a 40 mile round trip!

It has been a little while since I last had a gripe about the way the trainers' championship is decided so another is well overdue!  Looking through the flat trainers championship I notice that there are a couple of trainers who have saddle 2 and 3 winners, yet due to the prize money they are ahead of a trainer who has had 78 winners.  As far as I am concerned that is clearly not right and some sort of reform is in order.

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There are a couple of televised football matches taking place this afternoon between Southampton and Norwich and Swansea and Manchester United and I reckon there could be a couple of home wins - you heard it here first!

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The US Open tennis starts tomorrow at Flushing Meadow and world number one Novak Djokovic is unsurprisingly the 6/5 favourite with Paddy Power.  Andy Murray has drifted from 5/2 to 9/2 (presumably on the back of Roger Federer getting the number two seed and therefore missing Djokovic before the final).  Even so 9/2 looks like a big price and I might have a little saver on the Jock!

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Doctor, doctor!  Something is preying on my mind.  Don't worry, it will probably starve to death!  Have a nice weekend...

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