Pair Of Seconds at Worcester

There are six meetings taking place this afternoon with flat fixtures from Newbury, Haydock, Nottingham, Newmarket, Hamilton and Pontefract.  If you are a fan of the jumps, you are out of luck, although the Irish have a couple of meetings from Killarney and Kilbeggan.  Given the lack of NH racing, it is unsurprising that there are no runners from the Pond House team today, although we will be back at Market Rasen with three runners tomorrow, two of which contest the big race...come back then to find out more.

We were out of luck at Worcester last night with Koi Dodville and Bashful Boy both finishing second.  Koi Dodville again jumped well on only his second start over fences and stuck to his task well to retake second close home.  He will surely be winning races over fences on this evidence.  Bashful Boy picked up some useful prize money without showing his best.  He remains on a career high mark so hopefully will get some help from the handicapper.  Duesenberg finished sixth in the maiden hurdle on his debut over hurdles, displaying promise and some aptitude for jumps.

I see that the closing fillies' novices' stakes at Newbury tomorrow drew no runners with trainers electing to give the race a swerve in protest against the prize money on offer.  It must be very embarrassing for a track of that status to not even get a walkover, although it is not really surprising as they have been taking liberties for some time.  I recall mentioning a few weeks ago that one of our horses won more prize money for finishing second at a small track than the winners of four races at Newbury on the same day.  I know they have to watch the bottom line, but they need to do something to incentivise the owners and trainers to run their horses as without them, there is no racing.

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What a turnaround from England's cricketers as they beat India by 100 runs at Lord's in the second One Day International to level the series 1-1.  After a ten wicket hiding in the first match, I didn't fancy their chances much but some stubborn batting from the tail-end and a great spell of bowling from Reece Topley, who took 6 wickets for just 24 runs sealed the victory.  The deciding match in the series takes place at Old Trafford on Sunday.

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