Dell' Arca To Huntingdon

It is a brighter star to the day and consequently there are no inspections planned ahead of the five meetings scheduled today.  The action comes from Huntingdon, Doncaster and Towcester over the sticks, while there are all-weather flat fixtures from Newcastle and Chelmsford City.  David runs old favourite Dell' Arca in the 2.50pm race at Huntingdon, a 2m3½f handicap hurdle.  He has to concede upwards of 12lbs to his rivals and is still 9lbs above his last winning mark so it will be tough for him.  He should be effective over the trip, although his latest successes have come at around three miles.  He is a fabulous horse who rarely runs a bad race, so let's hope that he can do himself justice once again under Tom Scu.

Meanwhile, David Noonan heads to Doncaster this afternoon for just one outside ride, but don't get too excited - it is a 100/1 chance...I can't see the 'one ride theory' paying off today.  The life of a jockey has to be a tiring existence when you are making journeys like that regularly - hopefully he will have some company in the car with him, otherwise it would be a lonely one too.

Do you know what happens to a jockeys' riding fee?  Some people think that these lads are raking it in, but the truth is somewhat different.  The current riding fee is £169.85 which sounds very nice indeed if you have a full book of rides at a meeting, but not every jockey can expect that.  Then the agent claims his 10%, the valet charges £17.16, the PJA take £4.94 and then there is another 75p to deduct for insurance.  That leaves him with £128 and that is before the tax man takes his cut and before he puts a tank full of petrol in the car.  For those jockey established in the upper echelons of the sport it is a good life, but take it from me, for those jockeys with the odd ride here and there it is a life full of risk for little reward.

I see that jockey Brendan Powell Jnr has made a pertinent observation about the planned changes to the number of courses covered by RUK and Attheraces.  Powell has observed that, "There are already delays when horses get down to the start of races.  There's going to be chaos when there are six meetings all on the same channel".  He has a point.  I think it is a shame that Attheraces is losing it's Irish racing coverage.  Racing UK is regularly too analytical to engage with the more casual viewers and I prefer the more laid-back and fun approach adopted by ATR.

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Alexis Sanchez has been handed a 16 month suspended jail term for tax fraud by the Spanish Courts.  It is all over £890,000 which isn't even a couple of weeks' wages for one of these footballers...why on earth did he not just pay it?!

England lost their T20 cricket match last night against the Aussies.  Australian batsman Glenn Maxwell was on 59 when given out, caught in the deep by Jason Roy.  Unfortunately the television replay could not decide if it was a clean catch or not so Maxwell was given the benefit of the doubt and went on to score 105 not out.  Roy said that it was a clean catch and I think that should be good enough...

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Mrs Barnes will buy anything that is marked down.  Only last year she bought an escalator!

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