Aldrin Rockets Home!

It was a good day for the stable yesterday with the success of Aldrin in the handicap hurdle at Market Rasen.  He came away in the closing stages to win by six lengths in the hands of Charlie Hammond and our five year old has now won three of his seven starts.  He doesn't want the ground too soft, but looks capable of winning again while the sound surface remains.  Malangen performed creditably in third, while Moon Racer ran well in the Pertemps qualifier at Newbury, finishing third.  He was conceding 15lbs to the winner and there are still plenty of races to be won with him based on this evidence.  Nordic Combined also ran an eye-catching race in what looked a decent novices' hurdle to finish a close fifth on his hurdling debut.  Sent off a 40/1 chance, it will be a while before he is that sort of price again and he looks like a winner waiting to happen.

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Warwick, Hexham and Fontwell supported by an all-weather flat card from Newcastle.  There are no runners from Pond House this afternoon, although stable jockey Tom Scudamore has picked up a couple of outside rides at Warwick.

I see that South Africa are trialing races without whips.  If they want to stop the use of the stick, all they need to do is make the penalties for those that breach the rules more severe.  If a jockey is banned for three months for excessive use of the whip, they will think twice before they do it again...problem solved!

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I cannot believe that the press are making so much of this Wayne Rooney farce when England play the USA at Wembley.  Just let him play for ten minutes - what difference is it going to make?  If we can't beat the USA we are not going to be winning any trophies in the near future.

Meanwhile, Chelsea beat Bate 1-0 and are now 6 points clear at the top of their group.  Arsenal drew 0-0 at home to Sporting and lead their group by 3 points, although Danny Welbeck could be out for the remainder of the season with a horrible looking ankle injury.

England look to be in control of the cricket against Sri Lanka at the moment with the hosts losing three wickets.  It looks like only rain will be able to stop them...

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The man who invented throat lozenges died last week.  There was no coffin at the funeral!  Keep smiling...

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