More National Changes

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon at Newbury, Brighton, Lingfield, Wolverhampton and Ayr.  It is yet another victory(!) for the race planners this afternoon as they have scheduled meetings at Lingfield and Brighton - both tracks are in Sussex and are not far apart.  Surely they will have considered whether the same racegoers would have attended both meetings had they been on different days?  I would have thought that the attendance at both meetings will be lower or am I missing something?!

Aintree racecourse yesterday announced yet more changes to the Grand National for 2013.  They have made the fences smaller and moved the start away from the crowds (shortening the distance) and have also added a friendly starting tape.  Why don't they just go the whole hog and run it over five furlongs on the all-weather?  I do not like to see horses injured any more than anyone else and believe that health and safety for both horse and jockey is of paramount importance, however, they cannot keep caving in to pressure every time there are problems...if they do that, in twenty years time there will be no jump racing left, just as in Australia where they now compete over obstacles in just two states.  The Grand National is supposed to be the ultimate test for man and horse and if it continues to be softened year on year, it certainly won't be "Grand" anymore.

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Happy birthday to David Johnson, six times champion owner.  DJ has had some wonderful horses down the years with Martin including the likes of Cyfor Malta and Lady Cricket and is still an active supporter of Pond House with some nice prospects such as Our Father and Lady Cricket's daughter, the unbeaten Swing Bowler to look forward to.  Best of all, David is another Happy Hammers supporter, just like myself!  Many happy returns DJ.

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So, Saeed Bin Suroor does have a sense of humour..."I like this horse as he is named after me!".  The Godolphin trainer was talking about his Handsome Man - I'm not sure who told him about the name though!

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There was a good win for Liverpool in the Europa League last night as they beat BSC Young Boys Bern 5-3.  The scousers were fielding effectively a second-string team featuring a number of players making their Liverpool debuts, three of them being teenagers.  This was particularly impressive considering how the first team have struggled through the early stages of the Premiership season.  The goals were scored by Wisdom, Coates and Shelvey - all new names to me...the only Wisdom I can think of is Norman!  Anyway, the future looks bright for the Reds with some promising young talent to look forward to.