Day 2 Without Jumps

Day two of our annual jumps sabbatical so the four meetings taking place today are all on the level with the action coming from Salisbury, Catterick, Nottingham and Chelmsford City.  The most prize money on offer is over in Ireland with Cork offering a very healthy £167,000.  Looking through the Irish card it is interesting to see Brendan Powell and Mick Channon have runners in the 8.25pm race - it is a Group 3 contest for fillies and mares.  Champion jockey Silvestre de Sousa rides the Channon trained Harlequeen and the three year old has some good form and should go close.

The jump jockeys championship looks as though it is going to be a lot closer this year than it has been for a long time with Richard Johnson only four winners in front of Sam Twiston-Davies.  Johnson is still a 2/5 favourite although the young pretender is snapping at his heels.  With the backing of the Paul Nicholls stable and his father he should be a formidable opponent which can only be good for jump racing.

I had to laugh when I heard jockey Adam Beschizza's comments "You better take a picture of that because it might not happen again" - he was referring to the fact that he was appearing on the hot jockey's list in the Racing Post.

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With the Olympics only a matter of days away now, Team GB athletes have been advised not to run after dark.  The sun sets at 7.30pm and there are notices all around the hotel complex warning of the dangers of going out after dark...what a nice place to hold the Olympics!

I am not really into Formula One racing but I must admit that Lewis Hamilton is a bit special.  If you can party as much as he does and then win six out of the last seven races you have to be very good.  He trailed team-mate Nico Rosberg by 43 points in May and is now 19 points to the good and looks nailed-on to join Sebastian Vettel on four world titles.

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Thought for the day...If money doesn't grow on trees, why do banks have branches?!

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