Summer Holidays

There is just one jumps meeting today at Huntingdon and the stable does not have any runners.  There is not lots of runners on the card, I imagine because the ground is going to be fairly quick and it starts with just a two runner maiden hurdle.  There are more runners in the other races and it looks like the Skelton's could have another good day.  There are four flat meetings today with Chester again taking centre stage but it is supported by Windsor, Redcar and Southwell.  In Ireland there is a jumps card at Wexford.

The Aidan O'Brien team had a good day at Chester yesterday, winning the Chester Oaks with Emilia Earhart and the Chester Vase with Benvenuto Cellini.  The pair are now favourites for the Epsom Oaks and the Derby and Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore have good chances of adding to that success today.  Constitution River is a short priced favourite for the Dee Stakes at 2.35pm while they have the first two in the betting for the Group 3 Ormonde Stakes over 1m4f at 3.05pm.  Jans Brueghal is odds on again from stablemate Illinois and beat him when the pair last met in the Doncaster St Leger.  Ilinois did win this race last year but you would have thought the betting will have this race right and I think Ballydoyle will be winning this race with the favourite. The Coolmore horses always have good names for their horses and I had to look up Emelia Earhart, many of you may know who she was but for those who don't....she is one of the world's most celebrated aviators and she was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932.  She did however disappear during a flight around the World in 1937 and it became and enduring mystery.  

Best Night did not get the clearest of runs at Newton Abbot yesterday in what turned into a little bit of a messy race down the back straight and she found herself shuffled to the back from which she could never get back into the race.  Harry Cobden was not hard on her after this when she could not be placed and said she will be alright another day!  Savanna Storm was plenty keen enough in his first ever race in the bumper at Fontwell last night.  He raced with the choke out a little from the majority of the race which meant he did not quite see out the finish as well as we hoped.  He was plenty green enough when he came off the bridle and will have learnt a lot from the experience.  Both horses are fine this morning which is the main thing.  

The majority of winter horses are now on their summer holidays and it is lovely to see them out enjoying the grass.  Some of ours go out in pairs while others go out in larger groups and it is always funny to see how the pair up and what friends they make!  We just like them to go out sensibly and get on together and not fight, so far so good this time as it is always a worry!  They are like humans with different personalities and you hope to match them up with similar characters and it is nice this time around that they seem to have settled quickly and are enjoying being out.  There is plenty of steam cleaning, painting and tidying from the staff before a lot of them go off on their summer holidays.

I watched the second half of of the Bayern Munich v Paris St Germain Champions League semi-final last night and there was a 1-1 draw which meant PSG go through to play Arsenal in the final in Budapest at the end of May.  Tonight we have the Europa League semi-finals, Nottingham Forrest are at Villa Park and have a 1-0 advantage from the first leg while Crystal Palace are at home in the Conference League semi-final and have a 3-1 advantage from their first leg.

I've just been pulled over by a police offices.  He saw my license and said I am supposed to be wearing glasses.  I said I have contacts.

He said he didn't care who I knew.

Have a good day!