All Quiet!

It's a quiet day on the racing front with just two meetings taking place this afternoon, on the flat at Redcar and over the sticks at Kelso - so if you are a southern racegoer you are out of luck and will have to spend the afternoon in your local betting office!  It is a quite day for the stable too, with no runners this afternoon.  I know it is a waste of time going on about it, but is there anybody with an ounce of common sense in race planning?!  It is a day off for messrs McCoy and Johnson and I expect the champ will be taking some big divots out of a golf course somewhere...I bet he is a nightmare to live with when he has no rides!

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It's a shame that Davey Russell does not venture over to this country more often - he currently leads the Irish jump jockeys' championship by 15 from Ruby Walsh.  I am sure that if Ruby spent a little more time in Ireland he would be champion over there, but having said that he has won £2.5 million in prizemoney between his English and Irish rides so he obviously values quality over quantity.

I see that it is bloodstock agent Tom Malone's 30th birthday today.  Tom used to be a jockey for us here at Pond House (and I use the term jockey in it's broadest possible sense!).  Nowadays it seems to me that everytime you see a horse coming into the winners' enclosure, there he is walking in next to it!  Surely he isn't responsible for all of these winners?!  Mind you, if you listen to him, he will convince you that he has - Tom was always a very good talker!

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What is going on at Liverpool right now?  The Reds were beaten 2-0 by Newcastle yesterday as they slid to their sixth Premiership defeat in their last seven matches.  Alan Pardew must be a good manager - I just wish he was back at West Ham...Big Sam could be on a sticky wicket if the Hammers do not go up.  There are too many players on £50,000 per week to be playing in that league.