Hammer Blow!

I was hoping for an early birthday present yesterday evening when watching West Ham playing Birmingham in the second leg of their Carling Cup semi-final.  Sadly it was not to be as the Mighty Hammers lost in extra time - now at least they can concentrate on trying to stay in the Premiership and winning the FA Cup.  Unfortunately their squad just isn't big enough to win three trophies!...who am I kidding?

Personally I hate it when your name appears in the Racing Post in the birthdays section.  Well it's not so much that that I object to, it's when someone thinks it will be funny to give the editor your wrong year of birth.  Just in case you were wondering, I am not 64 today (that's my story anyway!), I have just had a hard life!

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I thought there was some interesting action at Huntingdon yesterday afternoon.  Mr Moonshine caught my eye when winning impressively and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him turned out again quickly by connections under a penalty.  Even from a mark of 120 he looks to be well ahead of the handicapper.

There was a shock winner of the first race yesterday with a 66/1 shot gaining the upper hand from favourite Araldur.  It was almost twelve months to the day that the horse last ran when he was sent off a 4/1 chance for a decent Chepstow hurdle in which he was pulled up - what a difference a year makes.  Fortunately there was no money about for the winner otherwise someone might have been in trouble!

The winner of the last race, Be My Light was ridden by 10lbs claimer Kielan Woods who I presume is attached to the Charlie Longsdon yard.  The conditional got the better of fifteen times champion jockey AP McCoy in a close finish and I am sure he will treasure that victory for a long time.  I am sure that he will be buying every photograph going - let's just hope it wasn't too dark for the cameramen to get a decent shot!

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Sadly the weather has taken a turn for the worse again - it is cold, damp and miserable.  The horses still need to be galloped nonetheless and we have a few shots from them in action, including Lough Derg who ran such a mighty race at Ascot at the weekend.  I was quite amused to read that the handicapper responsible for reassessing his rating (up 3lbs to 151) fears for his life from Douglas' legion of fans next time he goes racing!

  
Above left: Recent Chepstow winner Our Father, and Right (l-r): Lough Derg and The Tatkin