Three Worcester Runners

It's been a bit of a changeable start to the day as you can see from the picture above.  The stable has three runners over the sticks this afternoon at Worcester - Ladyvie reverts back to fences having been a little disappointing over hurdles last time, while Clever Dick goes the other way and takes in the competitive handicap hurdle having run over fences last time - Woodlark Island also takes in the hurdle. It looks like a competitive day's action with plenty of big fields to try to pick the winners from.  In addition to Worcester there are also meetings taking place at Leicester and Redcar on the flat this afternoon.

I thought that Home Run ran a sound race at Newton Abbot yesterday afternoon and by far his most promising effort since switching to hurdles.  He looks as though he would be capable of winning something similar.  Enfant de Lune was a little disappointing in the chase - he had recorded a personal best over fences when runner-up to stablemate Shoegazer in the Listed Mildmay Chase the previous weekend but could manage only fourth yesterday.  The ground was a bit livelier and his jumping wasn't as fluent as before - he has yet to win over fences from twelve starts although I am sure that he can put that stat right.

I see that one of our former inmates, Dom D'orgeval was retired following his last run at the meeting yesterday afternoon.  He won over £215,000 during his career and was a high class staying hurdler/chaser at his best.  He will spend the rest of his days hunting.

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Well done to British(!) tennis player Andy Murray who won his first Grand Slam title by winning the US Open at Flusing Meadow during the early hours of this morning.  He beat Novak Djokovic in five sets and just under five hours to become the first British man to win a major title in 76 years (Fred Perry was the last).  I know this because Fred also won the world table tennis championship!  Now that Murray has got this monkey off his back, there is no reason to think that he cannot go on to win further Grand Slams and who knows, maybe he could even land the Wimbledon title?

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I will be watching the television tonight as England take on the Ukraine in their next World Cup Qualifier - the match is on ITV at 8pm.  With the injuries the team are carrying I think they will find it much harder work than against Moldova in their previous match.

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Former world number one golfer Lee Westwood is moving to Florida to help him win a major championship.  I am not quite sure what a move to Florida is going to do to help that...although I guess it is nicer there than Wokshop!  I think that Westwood has the game, he is just lacking the fundamental self-belief to win one - maybe he can draw inspiration from Andy Murray who you would have put in the same category until this morning.