Newcastle Brace

It was a good day for the yard up at Newcastle on Saturday with Battle Group (pictured above) winning by a short head.  Our six year old certainly has plenty of ability, although he can on occasions appear to be a tricky customer (as I am sure anybody who was at Exeter last time will testify).  It was a good performance to give 4lbs and a beating to odds-on favourite Yurok in bottomless ground.  The Tracey Shuffle also produced a good performance to win his second bumper in fine style under a penalty.  It normally takes a pretty decent type to win two bumpers, and this full brother to Mr Thriller and half brother to Gaspara looks to be a nice type for owners Sean & Jo Tracey to go hurdling with.

The Eider was a real slog as predicted and only three actually finished the big race, so that tells you all you need to know about the state of the ground.  I would imagine that it must have been touch and go whether the meeting was allowed to go ahead - the time for the Eider Chase was 1 minute 9 seconds slower than standard!  Despite eventually pulling up, I though that Comply Or Die ran well for a long way and he could still run a big race in the Grand National at Aintree on better ground.

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Looking through today's Racing Post, I couldn't help but notice a couple of names from the past under the title "Class of 1991".  In it, it refers to two of Martin's old horses that were the winning-most of the season.  Firstly, the little mare Hopscotch (who was bred by the Queen) won an amazing eleven times including the Finale Hurdle and the Finesse Hurdle, while Skipping TIm added eight successes of his own.  Nineteen wins from two horses in just one season...what an amazing stat!

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It was a bit of a surprise to see Arsenal lose in the Carling Cup Final to Birmingham.  The Gunners should have bought a goal keeper and centre half in January, although that is easy to say in hindsight.  It seems to me that the more people tell Wenger to do something, the less likely he is to do it...or have they spent all of their money on that new stadium?!

There was reason to be jolly in the Barnes household also as the mighty Hammers beat Liverpool 3-1.  Scotty Parker looked outstanding in midfield and scored a great goal.  You never know, we might stay up yet!