Weekend Jottings!

There is going to be a testimonial cricket match at Cullompton Cricket Club on Friday evening for recovering jump jockey Rodi Greene.  A team of racing celebrities will play against a team from Otter Brewery - it sounds like it could get a bit rowdy to me!  After the match there will be an auction which will include star lot, a four night break in the luxury Hyatt Regency Hotel in Sha Tin, Hong Kong.  The match starts at 5pm and I am sure that all the participants would be grateful of support (probably literally if they are playing a brewery!) - anyway, if you are in the area drop in - it should make for an entertaining evening.  In the meantime, Rodi continues to make progress from the spinal injury he suffered in a horrific fall in March.

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I see that the boss at Wetherby has retorted to A P McCoy's observations about the poor prize money on offer at their meeting on Thursday.  The most valuable prize was worth a paltry £2602, so in my opinion A P was right - I just don't see how chief executive Jonjo Sanderson can justify it.  If the owners chose not to run their horses, the Mr Sanderson would be signing onto the dole, afterall it's the owners that keep these tracks in business.

Talking of AP, I see that the champ has taken 680 falls since he started racing...you would have thought that he would have learned how to ride properly by now!  I would be interested to know how that compares with his colleagues, but I reckon that is a fall about every nineteen rides.  Throughout his career A P has boasted an incredible 25% winning strikerate - I guess that means if he is riding for you, he is five times more likely to win than he is to fall off!  I had one go at schooling a horse years ago - predictably I fell off, so I can boast a 100% strikerate!

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Finally, did you get the clues to today's birthday boy in yesterday's story?

It wasn't exactly rocket science, so many happy returns to MCP!  Martin is 65 today and is now able to claim his pension!  We had a great night last night at the Hartnoll Hotel near Tiverton (even though I did miss the Champions League Final!).