Dry Forecast

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Wetherby and Fontwell as well as all-weather flat cards from Lingfield and Newcastle.  There are no runners from Pond House today, although Tom Scudamore has one booked ride at Wetherby for his brother Michael in the first.  At least he will be able to get away a bit sharpish and avoid all the traffic leaving the course at the end of racing.  Let's hope he rides a winner to help pay for the diesel!

Looking at the weather forecast, it doesn't look as though Aintree will be getting a lot of rain over the coming week.  Just odd showers with sunny intervals.  Let's hope that they put plenty of water on the track to provide a nice, safe surface.  If you are thinking of going, it is well worth a walk around the track to look at the Grand National fences up close.  Mind you, you need to be pretty fit - when I walked around, we found someone in the open ditch!  He was wanted by the police...in court he asked for another 29 fences to be taken into consideration!

I see that there will be no racing at Towcester until October at the very earliest.  Hopefully they will be able to sort something out as Towcester is a lovely track and it would be a great shame if we lost another course permanently.  There aren't many tracks like Towcester with it's stiff uphill finish and it certainly sorts out the stayers from the non-stayers.

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On this day in 1911, Ipswich racecourse, a right-handed oval track held it’s last meeting.  The last race was aptly named the ‘Broke Chase’ and was worth £36.  It was won by the George Lyall ridden Bob Sawyer.

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Manchester United are 8/1 for the Premier League for next season after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer signed a three year contract to stay on as manager.  They also bet 6/4 that he will see out his contract - the only problem with that is you have to wait three years to collect your money.

Talking of football, did you know that Spurs' new stadium is capable of pulling 10,000 pints of beer every minute.  Let's hope they have reason to celebrate.

Tiger Woods played an amazing shot in the World Matchplay golf yesterday but that did not save him from losing to Brandt Snedeker.  I don't think Woods is the player he once was and the other players have improved.  McIlroy is looking like the best player in the world at present.  He beat Justin Harding 3 and 2 yesterday and never looked to be in any danger.

Andy Murray is due to be the starter at the London Marathon on 28th April.  The race has been started by the Queen and the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge over the last couple of years.  I would have thought it was better if Murray was competing to prove his fitness!

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What is Dracula's favourite fruit?  Necktarines!  Keep smiling...

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