Broadway Stars!

Wow!  Can you remember the last time that Pond House produced a 50/1 winner?  Well African Broadway won the concluding bumper at Newbury yesterday afternoon at that price under Johnny Farrelly.  There was no semblance of fluke about it either as the ex-Irish point-to-pointer came through the gloom sixteen lengths clear of the remainder of the field.  Johnny said that he was a nice stayer in the making, but judging by the way he won yesterday, there are a few more races to be won with him over two miles.

Of course Baron Blakeney was a 66/1 chance when he won the Triumph Hurdle but that was in 1981, while I can still remember Rod Millman winning on one called Chikta Beetle at a big price, but you are probably going back even further to find that one!  I can still remember Rod grinning from ear to ear when he came back into the winner's enclosure - I must have told him that he had no chance...times don't change much!

If you were watching the action from Newbury yesterday you wouldn't have been able to see a lot.  The visibility as the afternoon drew on was virtually zero - I always thought that you had to be able to see the last hurdle or fence from the winning post and you certainly couldn't do that.  In fact, the commentator could only see the final 1/2 furlong (or 110 yards), still the jockeys seemed to be happy enough that conditions were safe and that is the main thing.

Lough Derg also ran well when finishing runner-up to dual World Hurdle winner Big Buck's in the rescheduled Long Walk Hurdle, and it was good to see him returning to some sort of form.

*****

I see that it is former Monkee Davy Jones birthday today.  He always wanted to be a jockey but it was just a daydream (believer!) - if you are old enough you might remember that song, anyway Davy can draw his pension today - he is 65!

*****

There are a selection of wonderful photographs from the Racing Post's photographer Edward Whittaker in today's paper.  I was particularly taken by the photograph of a chap in his Royal Ascot finery with a stunning filly on each arm.  They always say that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, and I am sure that I would rather have these two on my arm and give the bush a miss!