Up The Hammers!

With the abandonment of Ludlow there are just three meetings taking place this afternoon, although the jumps card from Carlisle has to pass an 8am inspection so hopefully they will get the go ahead.  The good news is that there are two all-weather flat meetings from Southwell and Kempton - I don't say that very often!  Even so the prize money at Kempton, which after all is supposed to be a Grade One track on the turf with the flat and jumps action can muster only £30,000 in prize money across their seven race card...it certainly leaves plenty to be desired.

I see that Irish trainer Willie Mullins is planning a foray to Warwick at the weekend and he could have six runners.  He has had four winners from his last five runners at the track and it will certainly make punting a bit easier this weekend!  He is still vying for favouritism to win the trainers' championship over here, although he is still £850,000 behind the leaders.  You can almost guarantee that he is going to have a good Cheltenham but it is going to have to be every bit as good as last year (if not better) as it didn't get the job done then.  He has the best bunch of horses at present although these things do seem to have a habit of going in cycles.

Following the abandonment of Ffos Las due to waterlogging at the weekend, I see that it had been suggested that Ffos Las should become a summer jumps track.  Some bright spark has piped up by suggesting that the low-lying sun would be also pose a problem!  Surely the low-lying sun is only a problem on a sunny winter's day or on a summer evening or am I missing something?  I for one cannot see any problem with summer fixtures there.  It is a long journey but I have always enjoyed my visits to the Welsh track - we are always warmly welcomed and well looked after.

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What a result for my beloved Hammers as they dispatched Liverpool in their F A Cup replay courtesy of a header from Angelo Ogbonna.  They now face Blackburn for a place in the quarter-finals.  The big talking point of the night was Liverpool's goalkeeper Simon Mignolet who looks very shaky.  There is more football action tonight and I will be having a few quid on West Brom - coverage is on the BBC.

So much for looking different class!  England's cricketers were absolutely destroyed by South Africa yesterday in their One Day International.  I though that the England total of 318 would be difficult to beat but the home team won in a canter thanks to century's from de Kock and Amia.  I did my money in fine style!

I see that two tennis umpires have been banned over links with betting while another four face investigation.  I thought the snobs governing the sport said that it was clean?!

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I joined Weight Watchers but discovered that you spend the first few weeks finding your feet!  Have a nice day...

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