Bidourey Remains Unbeaten

The stable had another nice winner at Fontwell yesterday afternoon when Bidourey (pictured above) was a battling winner of the juvenile hurdle under Tom Scudamore.  I thought this was a good first effort over timber from our three year old who was extending his unbeaten run to three.  He has plenty of size about him and he clearly possesses a very good attitude, so is very much one to be excited about for the future.  There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with two jumps fixtures from Leicester and Hexham as well as all-weather cards from Lingfield and Kempton.  Well done to the team at Kempton where there is a race worth £37,750 - great prize money for a Wednesday evening!

While we are on the subject of the all-weather, I saw what looked like a very decent prospect on the all-weather at Southwell yesterday, although what it was doing competing for peanuts I have no idea!  Weld Al Emarat is a very big looking two year old who put up a good performance to get the better of the favourite in the one mile maiden for trainer Kevin Ryan.  He said that the next time he runs, it will be as a three year old on turf and I reckon that you should definitely keep on the right side of this one.

I see that the winning owner of Champagne Chaser, Monica O'Sullivan received only £1189 for winning the bumper yesterday.  I would have thought that after deductions for entry fees, transport and lads expenses there was very little left for any champagne!  Something is clearly wrong with the prize money structure and it is high time that the owners and trainers get together and boycott these races where there is little financial incentive.  Just think, if you were the owner and had a winner but still ended up at the end of the month out of pocket, you wouldn't be best pleased either!  I know that owning racehorses is a great privilege, but these people are not bottomless money pits.

*****

It wasn't a good night for the Scousers as Liverpool lost to a Swiss side.  Clearly they are not as good a side as we all though they were.  Credit to Basel - they aren't bad, but Liverpool were Fawlty...think about it!

I see that Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is going to buy a sixteen year old defensive midfielder.  He clearly needs a couple of experienced defenders and surely this latest strategy is just another sign that he has lost the plot.

*****

Despite his heroics on the golf course earlier in the season, I would imagine that Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton is the one to beat in the Sports Personality of the Year Award later this month.  He is a 2/1 shot at the moment, with some of the other candidates ranging in price as far as 500/1.  Even so, people such as A P McCoy and Ronnie O'Sullivan are not included in the final nominations.  It is about time that they changed the process which is currently decided by a panel of sports journalists - they of all people should know better.