No Jumping Again

My predictions proved correct sadly with regards to it being another blank day on the jumps racing front for Friday.  We had Shot Boii and Barrier Peaks declared to run at Market Rasen but the meeting failed its 12 noon inspection yesterday.  Once again, at least we knew our fate early and could plan not to go!  We have two horses declared for Taunton tomorrow, Jilaijone and Ramses De Teillee but the track must pass an 8am inspection on Saturday morning for racing to go ahead.  The track said they would have raced yesterday which I found slightly surprising as we would not have raced on the grass at the yard.  The roads were the worst we have had this week trying to get to work and there was a lot of ice about.  Having said that, while we are not a million miles from Taunton, the racecourse itself does seem to have its very own micro-climate and so you cannot always predict what happens at the actual course.  Jason Loosemoore is the clerk of the course there and he is very good at his job.  He is also the clerk of the course at Newton Abbot and in his spare time he also re-birches our fences and open ditches!

Haydock are inspecting at 12 noon today to see if they can race on Saturday while Ascot was abandoned yesterday afternoon with conditions un-raceable and not likely to improve significantly in time.  I was looking forward to seeing the clash between Energumene and Edwardstone but sadly we will have to wait a bit longer.  After a very quiet week for jump racing fans it would be just lovely to have some action to watch tomorrow afternoon – let’s keep everything crossed!

Today there is some action on the all-weather to keep us going at Southwell and Newcastle while in Ireland they race at Dundalk.  It you prefer watching racing from sunnier climbs then there is also racing at Meydan starting at 2.35pm.

While I did not get to watch the match, I did see some highlights of a heroic Andy Murray winning again at the Australian Open.  He came back from two sets down to win with a score of 4-6, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 7-5 in a gruelling marathon match against Australian Kokkinakis.  It was the longest match of his career and he played some amazing tennis and showed tremendous mental strength.  What I don't really understand is that the game started at 22:20 local time lasting 5 hours and 45am and finishing just after 4am in the morning, why were they being made to start a match and play at those hours of the day?  It doesn't seem right to me but fair play to Murray and let's just hope he can rest, recover and ready himself for his next match to play the Spanish 24th seed Roberto Batista-Agut in the third round.

I didn't get home until 30 mins had already been played in the Manchester City versus Tottenham Premier League but I got to see the best bits by all accounts!  Spurs went 2-0 up just before half time after some sloppy defending by the home team and can you believe that the crowd were booing their team at half time!  Their manager must have had strong words during the break and a different team (but the same players!) came out in the second half!  They scored three relatively quick goals to go into the lead and that was the final score, 3-2.  It was an entertaining half and Spurs, despite losing I thought played much better than they have of late.  There is no Premier League action this evening but there are plenty of eye-catching games to look forward to over the weekend.

What did the blanket say as it fell off the bed?  Oh sheet!  Have a good Friday!