Vodka's Veteran Victory!

Today we have three meetings taking place with jumps cards from Lingfield and Southwell supported by an all-weather flat fixture from Wolverhampton.  Normally you would think of Lingfield and Southwell as all-weather fixtures so it is nice to see a bit of jumping action from those tracks for a change!  David has one runner this afternoon as Mount Haven competes in the three mile handicap hurdle at Southwell at 3.00pm.  He did win on heavy ground over 2m6f at Ludlow and while he has to shoulder top weight of 11-12 and bounce back from a slightly disappointing effort last time, he still looks to hold sound claims under Tom Scudamore.

Meanwhile our conditional jockey David Noonan has picked up a nice outside ride at Southwell.  He takes the mount aboard Ashcott Boy who is having his first start for 112 days.  David has won the last three times aboard the gelding and if he can carry on where he left off, he also has a very good chance.

I hope a few of you followed me on Saturday and had a Shotavodka to warm yourself up.  Our ten year old gelding ran out a ready winner of the veterans' handicap chase at Newbury.  I did say that he looks fairly weighted from a mark of 127.  These veterans races are a great opportunity for these old favourites to land a nice prize as they often have excellent prize money (just shy of £19,000 in this instance).  The intention is for him now to run in another similar contest at Ascot at the end of the month.  Meanwhile I thought our four year old Fingertips ran another good race and he looks to be a most consistent individual, while Bella was third in the mares qualifier at Sedgefield yesterday.  She had to give plenty of weight away to her rivals, but at least she is qualified for the final of the series at Haydock at the end of the month where some better ground could be more to her liking.

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Crystal Palace boss Alan Pardew has accused Benetke of cheating following their 2-1 loss to Liverpool at the weekend.  He claims that he was diving and I think he could have a point.  The referee really needs the support of the television replays to make the right calls on the field.  I wouldn't stop there either - I would be handing out six match bans to the players, that would soon put an end to this nonsense!

Former England manager Steve MacLaren's days at Newcastle seem to be numbered.  Even so, I am sure he won't resign - better to get the sack and receive a nice pay-off than to walk out admitting that you have done a bad job!

Andy Murray single-handedly beat Japan in a thrilling five set victory over Kel Nishikori to give Great Britain the win.  Murray is British when he wins and Scottish when he loses!

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I heard a great quote from George Burns recently that said, "By the time you are 80 years old, you have learned everything, you only have to remember it!" I didn't realise I still had that much to learn!

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