Torrential Rain

It has been absolutely pouring with rain in the west country overnight and this morning we have woken up to scenes that I have not witnessed before.  There is flooding everywhere and the journey to work for several of our staff has been pretty tricky.  I am pleased to say the majority of our staff have made it in safely and the work continues!  At 7.30am this morning we recorded 46mm of rain and it was still pouring!!  Todays jumps meeting at Warwick has been abandoned but Hexham does go ahead.  There are also two all weather meetings on the flat at Kempton and Lingfield.

There was more drama at Fakenham yesterday.  Benny the Swinger jumped the last fence clear and then took the wrong course and jumped another fence.  He should have kept left on the rail on the run in and gone over the winning line.  The jockey in question was young Brendan Powell junior.  Something has got to be done about this Fakenham track.  Too many jockeys seem to mess up on this course and it is not good for racing.  I feel sorry for the poor punters who backed this favourite.  If you gave the jockey a six month ban I dont think it would make any difference.  You have got to try and limit the chance of these mistakes happening so surely the course itself has to take some measures to try and help this.  I thought trainer Chris Gordon took the whole thing very well.  He was actually at Folkestone and said " I am going to the bar for a drink!".  He blamed the track and said they should doll off the fence so that they cannot take the wrong course.  The jockey got a 14 day ban but this will not make any difference in the grand scale of things.  Jockeys will still take the wrong course at Fakenham in the future.

Ten minutes later and champ AP was beaten on a 4/1 chance at Folkestone, Shutthefrontdoor.  He was very green and gave AP no help at all.  He has won all three bumpers for Jonjo O'Neill.  It certainly was an interesting afternoons watching!

In the football last night, Chelsea were beaten 3-0 by Juventus.  They seem to have a few problems at Chelsea at the moment and it looks to me like they need a forward who can score goals.  This leaves the reigning champions lokoing like they are gouing to exit the Champions league at the group stages, the first to do this and not a good record to hold!

How can you loose billions of pounds without anyone knowing?!  Someoone must know what amounts of money these traders are playing with, or am I missing something?