Pair Of Fourths

This afternoon there are three meetings taking place with flat action from Pontefract and Windsor while Southwell provides the entertainment over the sticks.  Awesome Tunes finished fourth at Kelso yesterday afternoon on his fourth start over fences under rules.  He made a few errors which certainly didn't help and was a little surprising considering he was a good winner of a point-to-point in Ireland.  He will have learned plenty from the experience and I am sure he will get plenty more practice over fences at home and should be up to winning something similar.  Meanwhile, Unanimite finished fourth at Uttoxeter, not beaten very far and he looks as though he will be winning as well, although he may prefer better ground.

What an amazing performance from Aidan O'Brien yesterday to train the first three home in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.  Found won it in the hands of Ryan Moore from stable companions Highland Reel and Ascot Gold Cup winner Order Of St George.  That is £3,360,000 in prize money - not a bad day's work by any stretch of the imagination!  It was a good day for the Brits in France as Sir Mark Prescott trained Marsha to win the Prix de l'Abbaye, while Henry Candy was on the mark with Limato, Charlie Appleby was successful with Wuheida and James Fanshawe scored with Speedy Broading.

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I enjoyed the Ryder Cup over the weekend, although I had hoped that the Europeans would have fared better than the 17-11 trouncing they received at the hands of the Americans.  It is the USA's first success since 2008 and in hindsight, we probably had too many rookies on the team.  Willett and Fitzpatrick were both well beaten and never looked like winning at any stage.

There was a great point for Stoke at the weekend as they managed to draw with Manchester United, while Arsenal collected all three points with an injury time winner against Burnley.  The result of the day though was Tottenham Hotspur beating Manchester City 2-0 - Ashley Farrant is obviously very pleased and has already been crowing to everybody in the yard that Spurs are the only unbeaten side left in the Premier League...it is very early days to be gloating!

It wasn't a good day for Lewis Hamilton yesterday as he was just 16 laps from winning the Malaysian Grand Prix when his car burst into flames.  He is now 23 points behind team mate Nico Roberg with five races left and he has it all to do land his fourth championship.

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Mrs Barnes says that she has had enough of my 'Mr Know It All' attitude...I had a feeling she would say that!

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