Safe & Sound

There are three meetings taking place this afternoon with flat cards from Redcar and Windsor supported by a jumps fixture from Kelso.  There are no runners from Pond House today and it looks as though Tom Scudamore and David Noonan are taking the day off.  I also see that champion jockey Richard Johnson has no rides today - the three days of the Grand National meeting clearly takes plenty out of them all.  I am exhausted and only went up for the Saturday this year!

The good news is that our horses have come back from Aintree safe and well and there will be plenty of other days for them.

What a training performance from Gordon Elliott to land the Grand National in successive years with the mighty Tiger Roll.  Not only is he a back-to-back Grand National winner, he is also a four-time Cheltenham Festival winner.  If he returns in this sort of form he will have a real shot at becoming the first horse to ever land three successive Nationals.  I didn't think I would ever witness that in this age where the handicapper has such a say in things.  He was once trained in the West country by Nigel Hawke but was sold after his first win for £80,000 and the rest is history.

I don't like the viewing time of 5.15pm for the Grand National but I suppose it gives weekend workers the chance to watch it and for more people to place their bets.  ITV were pleased with their viewing audience of over 10 million people which is over 1 million more than the previous year.  If Tiger Roll lines up in an effort for a third success I would imagine that even more people will be tuning in.  I don't see them changing the time slot any time soon.

Barry Geraghty hopes to return from his broken leg in time for the Galway Festival in July.  He broke his tibia and fibia just above his right ankle in a bad fall at Aintree on Friday - that doesn't sound too good to me and it is certainly going to take a bit of time to recover from.  These jockeys are made from tough stuff.

I was talking with Sir Anthony McCoy on Saturday and I have to say, I have never seen him look so smart.  He normally looks as though he has dressed himself in the dark.  Chanelle must have picked his suit for him!  AP is now flying out to Augusta to watch the Masters golf...it's a hard life being a retired jockey!

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Everton beat Arsenal 1-0 in a bit of a turn up in the Premier League and I was wondering how Ozil manages to get a game.  He doesn't do anything and doesn't even chase back.  They substituted him eventually, although I would never have picked him in the first place.  Meanwhile, there was a good win for Watford who won 3-2 against Wolves in extra time to reach their first FA Cup final in since 1984.

My beloved West Ham will probably lose to Chelsea last night, in which case I will not be writing about it tomorrow!

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What happened to the man who fell into an upholstery machine?  He fully recovered!

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