Panic 2nd At Haydock

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with a jumps card from Southwell, flat fixtures from Catterick, Musselburgh and Windsor and all-weather action from Wolverhampton.  There are no runners from the Pond House team today, with our next runners likely to come on Wednesday.

We were out of luck over the weekend, with Panic Attack faring best of our runners when second in the valuable Long Distance handicap hurdle at Haydock on Saturday.  She was doing all her best work in the closing stages, staying on in fine style after the last to record a personal best effort.  Bashful Boy was far from disgraced in the Swinton, picking up some prize money for finishing sixth despite meeting trouble in running.

Kolisi finished fourth in the 2m handicap hurdle at Plumpton yesterday.  He had been in good form of late, but was higher in the weights here as a consequence and would have been closer but for a few novicey errors.  Dindin also finished fourth in the handicap chase, but was always on the back foot after an early mistake.

How nice must it be to have the strength in depth that Aidan O'Brien enjoys.  Over the weekend, he confirmed that ante-post favourite for the Epsom Derby, Luxembourg, would miss the race and then on Sunday, he had the new favourite after Stone Age bolted up in the Group 3 Derby Trial at Leopardstown.  It is quite remarkable how they have this production line of top class prospects.

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Liverpool handed Manchester City a golden opportunity to land the Premiership at the weekend as the could only draw 1-1 with Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield.  City did not need a second invitation as they looked imperious in beating Newcastle 5-0, bouncing back from their Champions League disappointment.

Miami produced an entertaining Grand Prix yesterday with reigning world champion Max Verstappen getting the better of championship leader Charles Leclerc to narrow the gap at the top of the table.  Mercedes continue to struggle and will be pleased with fifth and sixth place considering their lack of pace.  George Russell once again had the measure of Lewis Hamilton, with the latter bemoaning the team's strategy.  I'm not going to be popular for this I'm sure, but it seems they win as a team, but when they lose, it is the team's fault.

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I've bought a pen that can write underwater the other day. It can write other words too, but underwater is one of my favourites.