An Eventful Afternoon

We don't have any runners this afternoon, but I have been busy down on the gallops armed with the camera and I managed to capture a few old favourites as they went through their paces. First up was Swing Bill as he completed a solo gallop, while former Hennessy winner Madison du Berlais worked in company with former Victor Chandler winner Tamarinbleu.  It was certainly good to see them all looking so well in the morning sunshine.

  
Above left: Swing Bill and right: (l-r) Madison du Berlais and Tamarinbleu in action on the gallops

We don't have any runners this afternoon, but I have been busy down on the gallops armed with the camera and I managed to capture a few old favourites as they went through their paces. First up was Swing Bill as he completed a solo gallop, while former Hennessy winner Madison du Berlais worked in company with former Victor Chandler winner Tamarinbleu.  It was certainly good to see them all looking so well in the morning sunshine.

***** 

There was a nasty incident at Ludlow yesterday when four horses came down on the home bend.  It didn't look good on the television with Tom Scudamore and his mount actually sliding under the rails and right the way out onto the service vehicle road.  Fortunately, all those involved seemed to get up okay, although Tom Scu was stood down for the rest of the day having sustained an injury to his thumb.

That wasn't the only incident of the day...what about the dog at Brighton?  Jockey George Baker was making his way down to the start aboard Jupiter Storm when a dog appeared and started snapping at his mount.  The horse stayed incredibly calm and just carried on walking around - Baker said "I wasn't sure if it was one of my seven!".  It's good to see that during these difficult times that the jockeys are still retaining their sense of humour.

*****

The Racing Post continued their series on legendary bookmakers yesterday with a feature on Victor Chandler today.  It is another fascinating piece, but interestingly a punter wrote in saying "surely that cannot be the firm who closed me down online after a couple of £25 win bets and expressed it as a trading decision" - sadly the bookmaking firms of today are not quite like the fearless ones that used to stand a good bet.

*****

It was a good night in the Barnes household with both Stoke and Spurs winning...hopefully a few of you will have taken heed.