Broadway To Star?!

It is the final day of the Open Meeting at Cheltenham this aftenoon and we have just the one runner, African Broadway in the red-hot Grade 2 novices' hurdle.  He has looked to be a highly progressive individual in his two starts since arriving at Pond House, winning a Newbury bumper and a Chepstow hurdle in good fashion and he is certainly deserving of another step-up in class.  Tom Scudamore takes the ride.

What a good man Andy Stewart is.  I see that the successful owner is sponsoring Spinal Research Day at Plumpton on Monday, so if you are in the Sussex area it would be well worth a visit.  We are likely to have a few runners there as well, including exciting novice chaser Notus de la Tour who will be bidding to follow-up his impressive debut performance at Carlisle last month.  I wonder if Barry Cope, the fish man will be there?  When I used to go to Plumpton in my younger days we would always go and see Barry and have some of his lovely curries, while MCP would always have smoked salmon and prawns.

*****

I see that former Lambour trainer Charlie Brooks has re-joined the ranks.  Personally I would have thought that it was a difficult time to be starting any new business venture, but I am sure that he knows what he is doing.  It is 13 years since he relingquished his licence and I am sure that he will find that things are an awful lot more competitive now.  In those days trainers would often leave a little bit to work on - you would be able to just look at the horses in the paddock and know which one's they were.  It's not like that anymore, and as Martin always used to tell me, "you never see a fat (human) athlete"...how right he was.

*****

I see that it is former Hot Chocolate lead singer and racing enthusiast Errol Brown's 63rd birthday today.  I can't believe it, I was sure that he was older than me!  I don't suppose that either one of us are "sexy things" anymore!  I can't even eat chocolate anymore due to my diabetes...oh, the good old days!

*****

Poor Tiger Woods has dropped down the leaderboard in Australia.  I say "poor" Tiger, I don't suppose he is ever going to be short of a bob or two, but I would love to see him win one more tournament before he retires!