All Over For Another Year!

At the start of the week David said that he would take one winner at the Cheltenham Festival, well I am sure that he will be delighted with two winners as well as a number of places.  All in all it was an excellent Festival for the Pond House team and in particular I thought that Buena Vista put up an outstanding performance.  He has now been to the Festival seven times and has never finished out of the first six (6th 2005 Festival Bumper, 3rd 2006 Supreme Novices Hurdle, 6th 2007 Arkle Chase, 5th 2008 Pertemps Hurdle, 2nd 2009 Pertemps Hurdle, WON 2010 Pertemps Hurdle, WON 2011 Pertemps Hurdle)...a truly amazing performance.

The crowd seemed fully appreciative of this Cheltenham perennial - they certainly love their front runners.  It just goes to show that fairy stories do sometimes come true, and I reckon that the late Jean Broadhurst will be looking down with her big hat on with enormous pride.  Jean used to send down van loads of carrots and apples for her horses - she loved every single one of them.

I hope that they do not add another day onto the Cheltenham Festival - I am not sure that the fourth day has really added to the entire experience, let alone a fifth!  Perhaps if they are looking at a Saturday for the Festival, they would be better served by starting the meeting on a Wednesday instead - at least that way, people who normally work in the week will be able to attend.

It's now onto the Grand National meeting at Aintree and I am hoping to be going up for Ladies Day!  The girls wear the shortest skirts you have ever seen and most of them look like they are related to Matt Chapman (orange!).  It doesn't matter what the weather is - they will always wear their new outfits...roll on Aintree!

*****

I don't know how he manages to do it, but David has somehow managed to obtain some tickets for the England versus Ireland rugby match in Dublin this evening.  He will be going with pilot Mike Perry across the Irish Channel.  Mike is a rugby nut so he didn't take an awful lot of persuading, even though he has flown us up to the Festival everyday this week!  I am sure David will be able to tell me whether the Guiness is really any better in Ireland!