Bumper Turnouts

I see that Ascot attracted a crowd of 26,000 people for their free raceday yesterday.  Let's hope that some of those people that wouldn't normally attend enjoyed their day enough to return again and perhaps pay next time.  I bet the bars, restaurants and fast food counters did a great trade - I wonder how much money the team at Ascot lost conducting this experiment?  Regardless, I am sure that with so many people present there would have been a great atmosphere.

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As I eluded to yesterday, it seems to me that if you want to back winners at Perth, simply follow Gordon Elliott's horses.  He managed (just!) two yesterday - Gordy must have really picked up a lot from his time here!  They was a crowd of 3,000 paying customers there yesterday and are forecasting a crowd of 7,000 for tomorrow's fixture.  It's a great place to spend a few days, especially if the weather is like it is at present...who needs the Med?!

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How good is Lionel Messi?  The Barcelona star produced an amazing performance, scoring twice for Barcelona against Real Madrid last night.  Real Madrid had a man sent off, although personally I didn't think that the tackle was that bad.  The referee probably over-reacted - Jose Mourinho had wound everyone up before the match started and I think that bad feeling spilled over onto the pitch.  The wind-up's are good if you get the right result - last night Jose certainly didn't!