New Week

We start the new week with three flat meetings a Carlisle, Brighton and Windsor and in Ireland they have a flat card at Roscommon.  The stable does not have any runners.  

There was some great sporting action over the weekend and the Group 3 Solario Stakes produced at cracking finish at Sandown on Saturday.  It was a four way photo across the line with he Clive Cox trained, A Bit of Spirit coming out on top under jockey Rossa Ryan.

The big news of the weekend really on the racing front however came on the jockey front with injury news both on the flat and over jumps.  It was announced on Saturday that Ryan Moore would not be riding at the Curragh on Saturday and will in fact in all likelihood miss the rest of the season through injury.  After suffering with pain in his leg for nearly two months and having various treatment, he went for a scan on Friday which revealed he has a stress fracture to his right femur.  Ryan apparently enjoys running and and it is believed it may have started here before a fall on the way to the start, also a few weeks ago may not have helped.  He has ridden plenty of winners since and high profile ones, so like most jockeys he has a very high pain threshold.  He will miss some big rides in the coming weeks with the Doncaster St Leger, Champions weekend and big races across the world in Ireland, France and America all in the near future and it will be a big loss to the Ballydoyle team.  They do however have a big team of jockeys already, Wayne Lordan will pick up plenty of rides before his ban and I am sure they will be using the very best available when needed.  Sean Levey rode the winner of the St Leger last year for the team and you would imagine he would pick up some rides again as he was based at Ballydoyle for eight years previously.

Jumps jockey Niall Houlihan has also been forced to retire from the saddle.  Similarly to our own Gearoid Harney, he has had too many head injuries and the BHA medical team will not allow him to ride again as the risk of further injury from another fall is too great.  The 25 year old has been a big part of the Gary and Josh Moore team for some time and has had a good level of success.  It does not say what he is hoping to do next but I would like to wish him well for the future.  It is never easy when these decisions are taken out of your hands but he leaves the saddle in one piece to embark on the next chapter in his career.

The weekend football action saw wins for Chelsea and Manchester United while Liverpool beat Arsenal 1-0 thanks to a stunning free-kick.  There is more good news for Liverpool after it has been confirmed Newcastle striker Alexander Isak has signed for Anfield for £125 million overnight to further strengthen their squad.  Manchester City lost 2-0 away to Brighton while West Ham got a much needed first win of the season.  There are no Premiership matches this evening.

The Northern Superchargers won the women's hundred competition yesterday beating the Southern Brave at Lords while the Oval Invincibles brought up a hat-trick of wins in the men's competition with a comfortable victory over the Trent Rockets.

Oscar Piastri won the Dutch Grand Prix yesterday while the action moves to Italy next weekend.  

England and Scotland's women's rugby teams both won on Saturday while it was another loss for Wales in the women's rugby World Cup.  Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and France were all winners yesterday.  The next Group matches come next weekend which includes England taking on Australia on Saturday.  

Novak Djokovic is into the quarter finals of the US Open tennis and several other player's, on the men's and women's side will be hoping to join him later on today.

A cop pulled me over and said "papers".

I yelled "scissors" and drove off!

Happy Monday!