Quiet Sunday

There are just two meetings today, both over the sticks at Huntingdon and Kelso but David does not have any runners.  Tom Scu has some rides up at Kelso while David Noonan has some at Huntingdon.  The big race at Kelso is the Scottish Borders National.  There are 16 runners and it has attracted some nice horses with some good prize money on offer.  Meanwhile over in Sha Tin I see that Oisin Murphy, Neil Callan and Silvestre De Sousa are over there.  If you ever get a chance to go racing in Hong Kong I highly recommend it.  Racing is very popular over there, and the atmosphere is fantastic, it is more like a football crowd.

I see flat jockey Kieran Shoemark has failed a drugs test and is going to get a long ban.  He is based with trainer Roger Charlton and I see it came as a shock to him and their team.  I agree with what Charlton says in the fact that jockey's are put under a lot of pressure.  I used to see what AP went through in the sauna trying to lose weight and it must be the same for some of the flat boys.  I am sure the right people will be giving him all the support he needs and hopefully he can come back from this as he is a very talented rider.  I have been lucky never needing to take a drug so it is hard to imagine what goes through their minds.

Today in the football Newcastle play Wolves and I am going to have a few quid on Newcastle at 37-19.  I see that Romelu Lukaku is the latest unhappy Manchester United player to consider his future.  If I was him I would stay at the club and see my contract out, he has not been playing too well recently.

Cricketer Ben Stokes was fined £30,000 but not banned for anymore matches so he is a lucky boy.  He and Alex Hales are now both free for the England tour of the Caribbean next year.