Weekend Jottings

There are three meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Ascot and Carlisle and a flat fixture from Doncaster.  The stable has four runners at Ascot; Impulsive American, Purple 'N Gold, Shotavodka and Taj Badalandabad.  There is some very good prize money up for grabs so as you would expect, the races are extremely competitive.  Impulsive American has run consistently well all season long and with conditional jockey David Noonan taking a handy 5lbs off his back he carries only 10-5 and should acquit himself well once again.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if Purple 'N Gold were to run well, while Shotavodka (pictured above) won a veteran's chase in fine style last time but is up considerably in the weights, even so he should go well once again.  Taj Badalandabad runs in the conditional jockeys race and will be partnered by Michael Heard.  He has been in good form and it could be a good day for the yard...fingers crossed!

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What a day of sport on the television...I am sure Mrs Barnes will be thrilled!  Of course, the highlight is England versus The West Indies in the final of the World T20 competition.  It takes place in Eden Gardens in front of a sold out capacity of 60,000 spectators.  Our side can bat right the way down to number nine so as long as the bowlers can keep it tight, England would appear to have a great chance of success.  What a boost that would be for English cricket.

There is some good footballing action on the box too with Leicester at home to Southampton at 1.30pm.  It will be interesting to see if Leicester are starting to feel the pressure a bit.

I see that 14 times golfing major winner Tiger Woods will not be playing in this week's Masters which starts on Thursday.  He says he has not yet recovered from his latest back surgery, although to be honest I am not sure he will ever regain the level of form that he was playing to a few years ago.  In some ways, it would almost be better if he did not come back again.  One of the hardest things to do as a sportsman is to know when to call it a day...personally, I would rather remember just how good he was.

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There is an excellent week of racing to look forward to next week with Aintree starting on Thursday and I always go up there for the three days.  There is always a great atmosphere at Aintree and it is one of the highlights of the calendar for me.

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A little later today I will be talking to an out of work contortionist who says that he can no longer make ends meet!

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