No Jumps To Be Seen

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with flat cards from Redcar, Leicester, Brighton, Southwell and Ayr.  If you are a fan of the jumps you are out of luck with nothing taking place this side of the English Channel.  Unsurprisingly, there are no runners from Pond House today and it looks as though the jockeys get a welcome day off too.

These veteran's races are hugely popular and the finish of the Cartmel contest yesterday produced a rousing finish between 14 year old Al Co and 13 year old Cruising Bye.  They are a great initiative as it gives these popular old-timers the opportunity to compete for a good pot without fear of something unexposed lurking at the foot of the weights.  Perhaps other sports should take note and follow suit?  They already do it with veteran's golf tournaments for the over 60's...I can't wait!

There was a close finish to the mascot race at Redcar with the monkey passing the Post celebrating.  However, the photograph showed that Vauxhall Griffin the Dragon won by a nose on the other side of the track.  We have seen time and again people celebrating too early and this certainly won't be the last - I bet his mates will be aping him!

It is Derby day at Epsom on Saturday and temperatures are set to soar into the mid 20's so the ground is likely to be pretty lively.  If you are looking to have a wager make sure that you selection likes to hear his hooves rattle.  I see that Dante winner Telecaster has been added to the line-up at the supplementary stage at a cost of £85,000.  He has been backed into 9/2 which is hardly surprising...if you were forking out that sort of cash to run, you would have to fancy your chances.

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I hope a few of you followed me and backed Aston Villa yesterday as they beat Derby 2-1 to earn themselves a spot back in the Premier League.  I think they will need to spend a lot of money to stay up.  They are 1,500/1 to win the title next year and only 5/2 to be relegated.

Tomorrow sees the final of the Europa Cup between Chelsea and Arsenal.  Fans are still trying to make their way to Azerbaijan...good luck to them.

English golfer Bronte Law won her first LPGA tour event in Virginia, picking up a cool £153,000 in prize money.  Fellow English star Charley Hull race on to the final green to spray her with shaving foam.  Law said she was still finding bits of shaving cream all over her hours later.

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I walked into a bar the other day and ordered a double.   The barman brought out a bloke who looked just like me!  Keep smiling...

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