No Jumping Today

It is the eve of the Grand National meeting from Aintree and there are four meetings taking place this afternoon, none of them over the sticks.  The action comes from Catterick, Kempton, Lingfield and Nottingham - even the fixture from Leopardstown is on the level!  Despite all of these meetings taking place there is not a seller to be seen anywhere.  There are a couple of claimers over 6 and 7 furlongs although that is going to draw little interest from anyone involved in the jumping game.  If there were sellers or claimers of 10 furlongs or further I am sure there would be more interest at the subsequent auctions which in turn would generate money for the racecourses - it doesn't seem like rocket science to me.

I see that the authorities are talking about tinkering with the Grand National qualification rules again.  The suggestion is that if a horse has finished placed in a previous Grand National or won a Becher Chase, they gain automatic entry into the National.  That sounds reasonable enough to me, although I might suggest taking it a step further and limiting owners to just one runner in the race.  The problem with the Grand National is that it is now such a high-class race that the likes of Many Clouds keeps some very good horses out of the line-up.  There are 87 horses vying for 40 places so as you can see demand certainly exceeds supply - we have two horses that will miss the cut, so it is tough on everybody.  I am surprised that no-one has suggested a Silver Grand National yet, a bit like the Ayr Gold, Silver and Bronze cups on the flat for those horses that do not make the final cut...I shouldn't put these ideas into the officials heads!

The more I look at Aintree, the more Willie Mullins horses I see entered up.  He has about £250,000 to make up on championship leader Paul Nicholls at present and he looks likely to bring over 35-40 horses.  Even so, odds of 2/5 to win his first British title look plenty short enough and I may have a few quid on his rival at the prices.

While we are on the subject of Aintree and the Grand National, how about a few fun facts for you?...

Did you know the first winner of the Grand National in 1839 was appropriate called Lottery?
As well as the Grand National, Aintree used to host the British Grand Prix with Stirling Moss winning the inaugural race in 1955.
The oldest winning rider was 48 year old Dick Saunders who won aboard Grittar in 1982.

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Peter Scudamore is talking about the Grand National in today's Racing Post.  Scu completed on nine of his 12 rides.  He said the one that got away was Strands of Gold who fell at Becher's second time round "Mr Pipe has never forgiven me for that one" Scu recalls.  Mr Pipe is not the only one Scu! 

I have just been watching some of Anthony Joshua and Charles Martin's fights and they both look like big punchers.  I don't think that Martin is a great heavyweight champion, but he can certainly punch...I don't see their bout going further than three rounds.

The big football match is PSG versus Man City on BT Sport Europe at 7.45pm.  I am not sure Man City are playing at their best.  I was going to back PSG star Ibrahimovic who could be playing in our Premier League next season.  It was a good win for Barcelona 2-1 over Aletico Madrid.  Torres scored for Madrid then got sent off for two stupid challenges.  Bayern Munich beat Benfica 1-0.

My psychiatrist said that my wife and I should have sex every night...now we will never see each other!  Have a nice day.

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