Sunday Thoughts

There are just two flat meetings today, on the turf at Pontefract and on the all-weather at Southwell.  In Ireland they have a jumps card at Tramore.  The stable does not have any runners today.  There is another good card at Deauville with Group race action.

There are two Group 1 races with British and Irish interest in both.  At 1.33pm, there is a fillies and mares race over 1m2f and Joseph O’Brien trains two of the five strong field.  At 2.50pm, there is the Group 1 for two year olds over 6 furlongs.  Whistlejacket heads the betting for the Aidan O’Brien/Ryan Moore team and he is making a quick reappearance after finishing runner up at the Curragh last weekend.  He is the highest race in the field by quite some way but there are some useful horses in opposition and Shareholder might be my tentative selection for the race.

On Friday evening, we cobbled together a Pipe cricket team to play against a visiting side from South Dorset.  It was more of a social game than high-class cricket but it was very competitive and fun to watch!  Our team opened the batting but when Jack Pipe was out early on, we knew we were in trouble!  We posted a reasonable score but were chased down easily enough in the end.  The other team was made up of ‘horsey’ people and included top West Country point-to-point trainer Chris Barber amongst others.  It was a nice evening and most went to the Culm Valley in afterwards where there was live music to continue the party!

I was sad to read yesterday about the death of top class Australian sprinter Black Caviar at the age of 18.  She was put to sleep shortly after giving birth to a Snitzel colt on humane grounds because of infextion.  She was unbeaten in her 25 career starts and fifteen of those were Group 1 races and included a win at Royal Ascot in 2012.  She was crowned the World’s best racehorse in 2013 in what was a glittering career. 

There are to Premier League football matches today, Brentford play Crystal Palace at 2pm while the big game of the day is Chelsea against reigning Champions Manchester City at 4.30pm at Stamford Bridge. 

The knock out matches continue in the cricket Hundred competition today while Somerset are in semi-final action in the Metro One-Day Cup.  They are at home to Leicestershire starting at 11am.

My husband asked if he could have a little peace and quiet while he cooked dinner.

So I took the battery out of the smoke alarm!

Have a good Sunday!