Too Much Racing?

There are six meetings taking place this afternoon with flat cards from Sandown, Thirsk, Hamilton, Newcastle and Wolverhampton as well as a jumps fixture from Bangor-On-Dee.  Tom Scudamore has picked up one outside ride at Bangor, while David Noonan is also riding at the fixture.  I did say that Tom had some decent chances at Fontwell yesterday and he did ride a winner.

I was just taking a look at the size of the fields on the Curragh card today with fields of 24, 15, 28, 15, 23 and 15 - in Ireland there are not so many meetings so races are much better subscribed.  I bet the bookmakers over there love taking wagers on these cards.  Meanwhile, I don't know what the tracks on these shores have to do to attract more runners - Chelmsford put up plenty of money for their fillies' conditions race and must have been disappointed to get only three runners.  The winner picked up £21,000, whilst the third (and last home) picked up a handy £3,260.  It would appear that trainers do not want this type of race, although in fairness Chelmsford had another 3 runner race as well as 4 and 5 runner contest.  They must have been disappointed.  I can only conclude that there is too much racing and not enough horses.

The jockeys will be leading up at Thirsk this afternoon at 1.30pm when a dozen stable lads will be riding in a race in aid of Racing Welfare.  A racing saddle will be presented to the winning rider.

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England were bowled out for 276 in their first innings at Southampton yesterday.  Luckily Sam Curran scored a good 76, without which England would have been in big trouble.  The ball was moving about a bit but it still looks like the batsmen are not as good as the bowlers - I didn't realise that India were renowned for their fast bowlers.  We need some quick wickets this morning.

I have said time and again that it is hard to return to top-class standard when making a comeback in any sport.  Andy Murray is finding this out the hard way at present after he was beaten in the US Open by a player that he would have slaughtered only a couple of years ago.  I hope he can rediscover his form shortly, or that he does not go on trying for too long and loses lots of matches.

I was 1 hour and 35 minutes having photographs taken yesterday and it was shown in another room where a load of students were watching...there was even a running commentary.  I deserved an Oscar for my part, but all I got was a sore bum!

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I went to a therapy group the other day to help me cope with loneliness...no-one else showed up!

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