Weekend Jottings!

The stable has a couple of runners at Stratford this afternoon in the 2m6f handicap hurdle that takes place at 4.30pm.  American Art produced a pleasing effort on his seasonal reappearance at Uttoxeter last time and while this is a step up in company he gets on well with jockey Conor O'Farrell.  Our other runner Bathwick Man will be ridden by Tom Scudamore - he was seen winning at Towcester a couple of starts ago and is another who will find conditions to his liking.  There are two other meetings on the level aat Carlisle and Pontefract, so I'm afraid that if you live in the south of the country and you want to go racing you are out of luck.  I guess it will be a trip to the seaside or a day in front of the television watching the Olympics!

Olympic fever certainly seems to have touched the entire country and I particularly liked the tweet from an England cricketer who was offering advice to the archers who are competing at Lords.  He said, "when firing from the Pavillion End, aim a little further left or the arrow will tend to slide down the legside!"

*****

I think that it is a great shame that Hereford and Folkestone racecourses are going to be shut down at the end of the year by the Reuben Brothers who own Northern Racing and Arena Leisure.  I don't think that we can afford to lose any of our tracks but it would appear that both sites are going to be built on...it's a great shame.  I would love to know why we need more housing when it is virtually impossible for first time buyers to get onto the property ladder - who is buying all of these new houses that companies such as Northern Racing and Arena Leisure find so lucrative?  I don't think that it is right that the lost fixtures should be distributed among the group's other tracks - perhaps they should be given to courses that are consistently able to fund racing in accordance with levels suggested by the Horsemen's Tariff?