Sir Henry

Arise Sir Henry!  It is fantastic news that Henry Cecil has been knighted.  Lets just hope when the Queen knights henry he keeps his head straight!  As some of you may know, Henry tends to keep his head on one side.  The Queen could easily chop his head off!  If anyone does deserve a Knighthood then I think it is Henry Cecil.  He is a great trainer and has been for so many years and he really is a lovely guy, well he must be as he put up with MCP and myself  for the wekend a few years ago!  Next week we will of course his superstar Frankel running at Royal Ascot.  That is just one of the many races I am looking forward to over the next few days.

Its hard to believe that there are seven race meetings in England today and only one jumps card and that is at Hexham.  There is no action for the jump fans in the South of England and I can't help but wonder how this race planning is worked out sometimes.  David runs Kazzene on the flat in the final race on the card at Sandown.in a 0-85 handicap over 1m6f.  Kazzene has some decent form from 1m2f-1m4f in France and the step up in distance should pose no problem today.  He does have to bounce back from some slightly disappointing runs over hurdles most recently but fingers crossed he will enjoy his return to the flat with Andrea Atzeni in the saddle this afternoon.

There was some much needed rain at Pond House yesterday but I am pleased to report it is a lovely sunny morning today.  We sent head lad Eddie Buckley down to the gallops with the camera and below is a photo of Beyond doing his work and also Barton Stacey alongside recent winner Spirit of Barbados on the gallops with a great backdrop.

                               
                Beyond                                  Barton Stacey & Spirit of Barbados

I have heard from our owner Gino this morning.  For those of you who haven't heard he is cycling from London to Paris this weekend for charity.  He has made it to Dieppe having completed 60 miles.  Apparantly he is having trouble sitting down and he sounded terrible when I spoke to him at 6.30am this morning.  Mind you I think I did wake him up which he wasn't best pleased about!

Just a quick note about football.  If Arsene Wenger does not start spending some money soon I could see a few more of his star players wanting to leave.  Big name players have all the money they need so its not wanting to move for this but just to win titles and cups.  Arsenal have gone too long without winning anything so I think they need to be careful.  Maybe Arsene thinks it is his own money he is spending?!