Weekend Jottings!

Following a bumper day of great racing yesterday we have just two meetings to look forward to this afternoon - a flat card at Bath and a jumps card from Kempton. The big name at Kempton is The New One who makes his seasonal reappearance in the Listed hurdle. He won it last year and according to official figures, he has tons in hand. Even so, I reckon part-owner Gino will have had very little sleep last night and will have spent a large part of it walking his box! The New One is too short in the market to recommend as a betting proposition but it is nice to see a top class horse in action. Sam Twiston-Davies is charged with doing the steering.

It is Moorcroft Racehorse Charity Day today and there are some great prizes up for auction.  One year Carol bought a week's holiday on Islay, a Scottish island where they make whiskey.  It was a great holiday - the only problem was that the house had a games room with a table tennis table!  What a stupid game that is when the opposition cant' play...only joking Martin!

Don't forget that David appears in the Racing Post tomorrow as the first installment in the new series of Stable Tours. Post correspondent Ben Newton was down at the yard last week along with the biggest pair of binoculars you have ever seen. You may also have seen award winning photographer Ed Whittaker was literally 'down' as well - I have a great picture of him (right) lying low on our gallops in search of the perfect shot.  Fortunately for him I was on hand to give him some advice, so the feature should contain some lovely imagery!  It should make for some interesting reading so don't forget to pick up your copy.

Interestingly, did you know that the betting shops are responsible for buying 22,000 copies of the Post every day...I wonder what they would do without the bookies?

I see that Cheltenham Festival winner Hunt Ball had his final run for Nicky Henderson yesterday evening when he took part in the Grand National Hurdle at Far Hills, New Jersey, America.  Gordon Elliott also had a runner in the race, along with last year's winner Demonstrative who was formerly in training with Mark Johnston over here on the level.

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I will be tuning in to see Newcastle take on Norwich this afternoon at 4pm.  If they are going to get out of trouble the Geordies will need to beat Norwich.  13/8 looks like a reasonable price to me.

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Mrs Barnes loves all of these reality television shows and as such I have to watch stuff like Strictly Come Dancing.  In fairness it is amazing to see how professional the competitors look - in some cases it is difficult to know who is the amateur and who is the instructor!  Personally I thought it was better back in the good old days when they were all novices.

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Shall I tell you the joke about the butter?  On second thoughts I had better not, you will only spread it around!