Haven's Ludlow Success

The stable was among the winners again yesterday as David struck with his only runner, Mount Haven at Ludlow.  He won the maiden hurdle under Tom Scudamore in good style from his chief market rival, the pair of them pulling well clear of the remainder in the closing stages.  With this first run of the season behind him our former bumper winner can go onto better things.  I was driving up to the stable from South Devon this morning and you could see fields flooded and full of standing water either side of the M5.  We have certainly had plenty of rain, although that pales into insignificance alongside what they have been enduring to the north of the country.

There are just two all-weather flat meetings taking place this afternoon with the action coming from Southwell and Lingfield.  We are certainly being spoiled with a total of £71,000 in prize money being split among the two cards and thirteen races!

While we are on the subject of prize money, it is no wonder that David is having increasingly more runners in France.  Just take a look at jump jockey James Reveley's statistics - he has ridden 54 winners this season in France and won a total of £1,734,462 in prize money, while over here runaway championship leader Richard Johnson has won 215 races in this country for prize money of £2,102,339.  If Johnson were riding in France his prize money would have totaled in excess of £5 million by now!

I see that it is former stable jockey turned trainer David Bridgwater's 45th birthday today.  'Bridgy' used to stitch me up when we would go racing together - whenever we would stop at the services he would pick up armfuls of sweets and while I was filling up with petrol he would tell the till attendant that his dad was going to pay!  I wouldn't mind but I always looked younger than him (and still do!).

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There is a good football match to look forward to tonight as Stoke play Liverpool in the Capital One Cup semi-final.  I will be taking a bit of the 21/10 about Stoke as Liverpool looked terrible the other day against West Ham.

I loved watching the darts from the Alexandra Palace.  They had 66,000 people through the gates over the course of four days and they consumed 500,000 pints of beer.  No wonder they were all singing and looking happy!  I have been watching the darts from Lakeside as well and it looks poor by comparison.  The Ally Pally is Premier League while Lakeside is non-league!  What about world champion Gary Anderson?  He is a non-drinker and cannot see...If I were the marketing manager at Specsavers I think I would already be on the dog and bone trying to secure a sponsorship deal with him.  Just imagine how good he could be if he could actually see the board!

The second cricket test between South Africa and England looks set for a draw as the pitch is as flat as a pancake.  I can't see England bowling South Africa out twice on a wicket like that.

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Customer: Waiter, the fish looks like it is sleeping on my chips!

Waiter: Well, it is a kipper sir!

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