Perth & Worcester Runners

There is a nice, balanced feel to today's meetings with a couple of flat cards from Leicester and Redcar and jumps fixtures from Worcester and Perth.  The stable has four runners today with Brenda de Ronceray and Prince of Poets representing us at Worcester while Border Breaker and Skylander make the long journey up to Perth.  Stable jockey Tom Scudamore is aboard Border Breaker who posted a sound debut over fences when third in a novices' chase at Worcester last time out.  While he did win an Irish point-to-point, this drop back in trip should not inconvenience him at all.  Young Tom Greatrex takes 7lbs off of Skylander's back - he bounced back to form with a good third at Newton Abbot and he should give the young amateur a good spin.

Over at Worcester Michael Heard takes the mount aboard Brenda de Ronceray who has performed with credit on her two starts in bumpers to date.  While she may need to improve a little to figure here, that is far from impossible given that she has only had two starts and I could quite easily see her thereabouts.  Prince Of Poets is burdened with 11-12 and it will take a good performance from him to win with that weight and he will certainly have to improve on his latest outing.

I see that it is former champion conditional jockey Martin Foster's 45th birthday today.  Martin was with us at Pond House for quite a few years and was a very accomplished jockey.  He was also a pretty good fighter and it wasn't always confined to the ring!  I could tell you a story about Martin and Graham McCourt from Nottingham a long time ago although it is probably a little early in the morning!  Anyway, many happy returns Martin...

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I hope a few of you followed me with a little double on the football last night.  Both Germany and the Republic Of Ireland were successful and now I think I may play up some of my winnings on England at 4/5 to beat Switzerland tonight.  The match starts at 7.45pm and is covered by ITV - you know where I will be tonight!

Ladbrokes are offering 3/1 that Wayne Rooney scores tonight to become England's leading goal scorer.  I was getting quite excited by the offer until I read the small print and saw that the maximum bet was a tenner.  I suppose I could keep going into the shop in disguise - I do have ten different hats!

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Andy Murray returned to form in the US Open tennis yesterday with a spectacular four sets defeat by 6 foot 8 inch South African Kevin Anderson.  Murray was back to his old moaning ways, blaming everybody but himself - I thought he had got past that stage of his career.  Anderson was only seeded 15 and should have been relatively easy pickings for the Scot.

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A 27 year old burglar was nicked when he managed to get himself stuck in a cat flap in Johnson City, Tennessee.  I suppose he thought it was the purrfect crime!

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