A Quiet Start To The Week

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with flat fixtures from Redcar, Brighton, Windsor and Leicester as well as a jumps card from Kempton.  I bet Kempton love their jumps cards - they have managed to get away with just £32,000 in prize money across their six race card.  It is a quiet day for the Pond House team as well as the jockeys - Conor goes to Kempton for Seamus Durack and the are both big prices.  Miss Williams, Mount Haven and Houston Dynimo all finished fourth over the weekend.  Mount Haven was making his debut over fences and ran respectably - he just needs to brush up his jumping a bit and maybe a step up in trip will also help.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the attendance at Leicester is significantly lower than usual this afternoon as there is an open-top bus with the Leicester City Premier League winning side displaying the trophy today.  It seems as if the celebrations are going to go on forever, but who can blame them?  It is probably going to be 100 years before they can celebrate again!

I had to laugh when I read an advert in today's Post for a UK Bookmaker who is looking for hedging facilities - I know someone who will cut his hedges for him!

Willie Mullins sent two horses over for a big prize in Tennessee, America over the weekend and Shaneshill and Nichols Canyon both finished in the money despite looking as though they had both endured long, hard seasons over here.  It takes a lot out of the horses to travel them that sort of distance - I recall when we took Regal Ambition over there in the past.

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What a performance from British number one tennis player Andy Murray.  He played brilliantly to defeat Novak Djockovic and this marked only his second victory in fourteen meetings against the Serb.  On this form Murray would have a good chance at the forthcoming French Open championships next week.

Why don't Mercedes enter Formula One drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg into a stock car series?  They do like to bash into each other quite a bit!  Rosberg clipped Hamilton and they both finished up spinning off the track and out of the race leaving 18 year old Max Verstappen to claim victory in his Red Bull meaning he is the youngest driver ever to win and F1 race.

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A final thought for the day from the late, great Sir Henry Cecil: "What he said was excellent, but there can be too much of an excellent thing!"