Happy Birthday Scu!

There are three flat meetings taking place this afternoon at Nottingham, Brighton and Kempton, while there is jumping at Towcester this evening.  We will have three runners at the Northamptonshire track, Barton Stacey, Bathwick Man and Ladyvie.  Our mare Ladyvie reverts back to hurdles tonight having won a chase last time out at Newton Abbot - she runs from the same mark of 95 and winning jockey Conor O'Farrell is in the saddle again.

Above: Ladyvie bids to follow-up her Newton Abbot success at Towcester tonight

There are three flat meetings taking place this afternoon at Nottingham, Brighton and Kempton, while there is jumping at Towcester this evening.  We will have three runners at the Northamptonshire track, Barton Stacey, Bathwick Man and Ladyvie.  Our mare Ladyvie reverts back to hurdles tonight having won a chase last time out at Newton Abbot - she runs from the same mark of 95 and winning jockey Conor O'Farrell is in the saddle again.

Sadly, yesterday's runner Katchmore fell at the fifth flight of hurdles - it was too early to tell how the race would have panned out for him, but at least he is safe and sound and there will be other days for him.  Champion jockey A P McCoy was in great form, riding the first four winners at the meeting, although the first was awarded to him in the stewards' room.  I thought the decision to kick out Tom Scu on My Legal Lady was a little harsh - the interference occured a long way out and the runner-up had plenty of time to get his head in front if he was going to do so.  Let's hope Scu has a better day today - it's his birthday and he is 30 (I understand that it is all downhill from there!) so let's hope that he get's a birthday winner at Towcester tonight.

*****

I watched England wrap up the first Test match against the West Indies with the minimum of fuss yesterday.  England did look by far the best team for much of the match and it is quite safe to say that the Windies are not the team they used to be back in the days of Clive Lloyd, Joel Garner, Viv Richards, Michael Holding et al.