Bangor Near Misses!

We had a couple of near misses at Bangor yesterday afternoon as our two runners Ladyvie and Prime Design both finished second.  Ladyvie led over the last in the novices' handicap chase under Tom Scudamore and ran a solid race, while Prime Design posted a pleasing first effort in the boys' handicap hurdle under Conor O'Farrell.  Both should be upto winning races during the summer period.

We had a couple of near misses at Bangor yesterday afternoon as our two runners Ladyvie and Prime Design both finished second.  Ladyvie led over the last in the novices' handicap chase under Tom Scudamore and ran a solid race, while Prime Design posted a pleasing first effort in the boys' handicap hurdle under Conor O'Farrell.  Both should be upto winning races during the summer period.

It's a busy day of racing action this afternoon with no fewer than seven meetings, six of them on the flat at Goodwood, Newmarket, Thirsk, Doncaster, Hamilton and Lingfield as well as a jumps card at our local track, Newton Abbot.  There has been a fair bit of rain overnight in the west country so the ground at the Devon track should be absolutely perfect.  We run three in the 4.20pm race at Newton, Raslan, Laustra Bad and Vertige Dore - Raslan has plenty of ability but does have his own ideas about the game.  He was a good second last time out at Market Rasen but the handicapper has reacted by putting him up a harsh looking 8lbs - ditto Laustra Bad who was stuck up 7lbs for finishing third at Uttoxeter.  It will be interesting to see what Raslan teaches young Tom Bellamy this afternoon!

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Down on the gallops I have a couple of nice pictures to share with you - one of today's runner Vertige Dore in action, and another of recent ex-French recruit Starlife.  Starlife was a winner over hurdles at Auteuil and will be in action shortly - as you can see it was a beautiful day and the horses looked magnificent as they completed their morning exercise.

  
Above left: Vertige Dore and right: Starlife in action on the Pond House gallops

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I am looking forward to watching Great Britain take on South Korea in the quarter finals of the Olympic football tonight at the Millennium Stadium.  Kick off is at 7.30pm and if we beat the Koreans, we will reach the semi-finals.  The team has improved immensely over the last couple of weeks and their win against Uruquay looked a decent effort.  Craig Bellamy in particular has looked outstanding.

We also have a great tennis final to look forward to with a repeat of the Federer versus Murray Wimbledon final.  Federer is favourite to win although he had a very hard match to get through yesterday as he won 17-15 in the final set.  Andy Murray did very well to beat Novak Djokovic - let's hope that he can turn Federer over too...perhaps then he will start believing that he can do it in Grand Slam events?

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With all of the focus on the Olympics, it is easy to forget that the football season has already started in Scotland.  There is Scottish Premiership and Cup action on this afternoon and Celtic have been effectively handed the Premiership title with Rangers having to start in a lower division.  I always thought it was a shame that Celtic and Rangers never played in the English Premiership - then we would see just how good their two best sides are...that is bound to upset some of my kilt wearing friends!