Top Effort

              Stable Staff Jockeys

A big well done to Clare Wyatt who rode in the stable staff charity race at Newton Abbot yesterday.  She rode Iniciar very well and although she only finished in midfield the horse gave her a great spin and she thoroughly enjoyed it.  The race was run at a fast pace and she had in a great position throughout but the pair just got a bit tired in the last two furlongs.  The race was won by Berry De Carjac who was ridden by Christina Berry for the Grace Harris team.  Lots of our staff went down to support Clare who did a great job in racing the most money out of all the competitors.  She raised over £1800 for Racing Welfare so it was a top effort all round and thanks must go to all those involved in putting on this great initiative as Clar's smile at the end of the race said it all!

            Clare & Iniciar Pre-race

There is plenty of racing today and there are seven meetings, all on the flat at Sandown, Nottingham, Leicester, Haydock, Chelmsford, Carlisle and Beverley.  The going on all the turf tracks, as you might expect with the current weather is good to firm.  The big meeting of the day is at Sandown with the Group 1 Coral Eclipse over 1m2f.  Aiden O'Brien has three of the eight runner but Ryan Moore is not riding any of them as he has gone across to ride in America.  Sandown also has a Group 3 plus 2 Listed races and it is a very good card all round.

I see that Richard Hannon is having a go about prize money, especially on a Saturday.  He said there was a big crowd at Windsor and the owners of Masaru who cost £38,000 as a yearling made a winning start to his career but the owners left with just £2,900 in prize money.  Hannon says there should be prize money of at least £5,000 to the winner of every race, especially on a Saturday when the racecourses get a large crowd.  I say the trainers should get together and not enter their horses at some of these tracks who don't offer much prize money.  I think they would soon try and increase it if they had no runners at their meetings!

I see they called the wrong winners at Sandown yesterday.  Felix Wheeler was the judge and it is not the first time he has been at the centre of a phtoo finsih farce.  There was a photo finish at Kempton in March subject to a reversal after he had called the result wrong.  Maybe he is trying to get into that Specsavers advert?!

What a result for Belgium in the World Cup last night.  They beat Brazxil 2-1 and it was a great goal from De Bruyne as well.  France are also through to the semi-finals as they beat Uruguay 2-0.  Where are you going to be at 3pm today?!  I, like many of you will be glued to the Engalnd versus Sweden game.  We are best priced 20/21 to win in 90 minutes.  Surely we have got to beat Sweden or have all the experts got it wrong?  MCP and everyone at Pond House are already for the match (see photo below)...Come on England!