Qalinas At Cartmel!

The stable heads over to Cartmel this afternoon with one runner, Qalinas (pictured above) in the conditional jockeys' handicap hurdle.  Conor O'Farrell is in the saddle and personally I think that he is hands down the best of these jockeys and Qalinas has produced a couple of solid efforts so far this season.  Hopefully he is able to build on those performances and run well again this afternoon.  Our only runner yesterday, Katchmore again ran creditably when finishing fourth at Ffos Las and it looks to me as though that extra stone the handicapper put him up for his last success was a bit of an over-reaction.  The winner of the race Solaras Exhibition may have to be turned out again quickly under another penalty before the handicapper has a chance to catch up with him.

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I was interested to see that A P McCoy has bought a share in a pub near Marlborough.  One thing is for sure, the champion jockey will not be drinking away the profits as he is teetotal.  You could safely leave him behind the bar, although there are plenty of other jockey's around that you couldn't!

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The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Celebration Concert demonstrated that everybody loves going to a good gig once in a while, and I am fully supportive of any racecourse looking to hold post-race concerts (unlike quite a few).  With Leicester sold out for their gig on 7th July, they obviously prove a good draw and if that means more people through the turnstyles on a raceday, that has to be a good thing.  Belinda Carlisle will be topping the bill at Leicester...you would have thought that Carlisle would have been the first in line to book the former Go Go!

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I was amused to see that Torquay football captain Lee Mansell said that if he ever met the Queen, he would ask her what she carries in her handbag!  It is probably a good thing that he will most likely never get to meet her as I can't see Torquay winning the Cup!  By the way, I wonder what she does carry in her bag?!