Bits And Pieces

Today there are four meetings taking place, with three on the flat at Epsom, Ripon and Southwell as well as a jumps card at Sedgefield.  Personally I have only ever been to Sedgefield the once but they did make us feel very welcome with their hospitality.  Indeed, they were so hospitable that one of our conditional jockeys had to drive the car home!  The stable has no runners today, although we will most likely have some at Worcester tomorrow...weather permitting of course.

I had to chuckle when I heard jockey Paul Moloney say "if I can win on this horse I will change my last name to Daniels!" - he was referring to his mount Clarion Call at Bangor yesterday afternoon.  Just like that his mount finished second again and does look more than just a little tricky!

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I see that twelve year old Kate Thompson won her first race yesterday when her mount Ulverscroft Hunter won the Sunderland Bookmakers Shetland Derby.  The race was for nine to fourteen year olds - I am talking about the jockeys' age and not the horses!  I wouldn't mind betting that Ulverscroft Hunter has never had more carrots or polo mints than now!

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Andy Murray managed to get his US Open campaign off to a winning start with victory yesterday although he did not look to be at his best.  He dropped his first two service games and can only get better, but he will need to!  I am sure he will find this harder than winning an Olympic gold medal!

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Tottenham Hotspur managed to get a cool £35,000,000 for Luka Modric and now they need to go out and spend that on getting themselves a good striker or two.  Clubs will be putting their prices up now that they know the sort of cash that Spurs have to spend.