Wednesday News

There are two jumps meetings today at Hereford and Huntingdon and while the stable does not have any runners, Jack Tudor is in action at Hereford.  There is also a horse to watch at Huntingdon and hopefully a winner if you like short priced favourites, Carlton in the 4.15pm handicap hurdle.  The James Owen gelding beat our very own Saccary last week at the track under a penalty and this looks a good opportunity for him to win again.  There is no racing in Ireland today and just the one all-weather flat card over here at Kempton this evening.

Yesterday, all three of our runners at Exeter were disappointing.  Shot Boii improved on recent efforts marginally but that is probably not saying much either! He is fine this morning and while he may have one more run before the end of the season, indications are that perhaps he is saving a lot for himself and not trying that hard!  The ground was too quick for both Allstitchedup and Eton Mes and the writing was on the wall from an early stage.  They are both better than that so back to the drawing board!

There is still news coming through from the Festival last week, including plenty about jockeys and suspensions.  Charlie Deutsch won the Grand Annual of Martator and that had already been reported about his upcoming ban and now we can add both Gavin Sheehan and J J Slevin to the list of winning jockety who are also receiving 14 day bans for using their whip too many times in winning the Albert Barlett and Stayers hurdles respectively.  Both jockeys used their pro-cush nine times, twice over the limit of seven which normally leads to a seven day ban but because of the grade of the race it is automatically doubled to 14 days.  Would they do this again to win the race....my answer would be probably yes....is that right....no....would I be happy if I owner the second horse in the race and my jockey abided by the rules....probably not!  I can see both sides and what do we do about it, that is one for another day!  All three jockeys mentioned above will be missing some of the Aintree Festival because of it.  Other jockeys to get bans last week include Patrick Mullins and Shane Cotter who battled out the finish of the Kim Muir.  Both used their pro-cush eight times, once over the limit and are banned for eight days which means they will miss the Aintree Foxhunters as a result.  

Both Chelsea and Manchester City are out of the Champions League after losing last night at home while Arsenal are safely through following a 2-0 win against Leverkusen. Newcastle are playing Barcelona at the Nou Camp this evening with the game currently evenly poised at 1-1 but it will tough for them away.  Liverpool are at home to Galatasary and have a 1-0 deficit to overcome but hopefully they can do that with the home advantage so we have more than one team through to the next round of the Champions League.

Since writing this blog this morning, the horse I mentioned, Carlton is a non-runner at Huntingdon so he will not be winning! 

If you think swimming with dolphins is expensive?

You should try swimming with sharks...cost me an arm and a leg!

Have a good day!