Bath, Newton Runners

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with flat cards from York, Yarmouth and Bath as well as jumps action from Newton Abbot and Perth.  David has two runners at Newton Abbot this afternoon; Airton and Great Tempo, whilst Ekayburg runs on the flat at Bath.  Airton (pictured above) contests the 2m2½f handicap hurdle at Newton Abbot at 2.10pm.  Our six year old has been in good form last season, winning at Taunton on good ground.  He has form on good/firm from his days on the flat so he should not be inconvenienced by today's going.  He has a mark of 124 which is probably high enough but he looks to have each-way claims under Tom Scudamore.  Great Tempo is our other runner in the 3m2f novices' handicap chase and our six year old has top weight of 11-12 to carry - his one win came on heavy ground but he should be thereabouts if he handles this faster surface.

Ekayburg was a Grade 2 bumper winner on the flat in France but has so far been disappointing over hurdles.  He makes his debut on the flat today and this will certainly be the fastest ground he has encountered so it will be interesting to see how he gets on.  He has to concede plenty of weight to the three year old's, although good apprentice jockey Finley Marsh takes a handy 3lbs off his back.

There was a big shock when the O'Leary's announced they would start to cut back their Gigginstown operation with immediate effect, winding it down to nothing within the next four to five years.  It will be a big blow to a number of trainers, not least Gordon Elliott who fielded eleven runners (mostly for Gigginstown) in the Grand National at Aintree.

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I was watching the England versus Pakistan cricket match and it was a great game, especially if you are a fan of seeing the ball smashed all around the ground.  Pakistan scored 358 runs from their 50 overs, whilst England surpassed that score after just 44.5 overs.  Johnny Bairstow hit 128 runs from just 93 balls to help England to a comfortable six wicket victory.  It was certainly a lot more entertaining than watching the county cricket...and there was a good crowd there.

What about Italian tennis chiefs?  They put the price of the tickets up to £124 to watch Roger Federer...that is double the normal price.  Federer was not very happy about it and I can't say that I blame him.

I see that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is going to get rid of half of his Manchester United team.  I don't think that is enough...I would get rid of eight of the side that lost to Cardiff.

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I am told that you cannot use "beef stew" as your computer password...it's not stroganoff!

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