A Week At Listowel!

This afternoon there are just three flat cards taking place at Musselburgh, Brighton and on the all-weather at Wolverhampton.  If you are that badly in need of a jumps fix then there is a mixed card in Ireland at Listowel for the first day of their week long meeting.  It is good to see jockey Ruby Walsh back in action and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him successful aboard both of his mounts for Willie Mullins this afternoon.  They must have had plenty of rain over in the Emerald Isle as the going at Listowel is currently given as heavy - goodness knows what it will be like by Saturday if they have further downpours!  Our runners, Premier Dane (Kerry National, Wednesday) and The Pier (handicap hurdle, Thursday) both left this morning so let's hope that they have an uneventful journey across the Irish Sea.

Above: Our Kerry National hope Premier Dane winning at Newton Abbot last time

This afternoon there are just three flat cards taking place at Musselburgh, Brighton and on the all-weather at Wolverhampton.  If you are that badly in need of a jumps fix then there is a mixed card in Ireland at Listowel for the first day of their week long meeting.  It is good to see jockey Ruby Walsh back in action and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him successful aboard both of his mounts for Willie Mullins this afternoon.  They must have had plenty of rain over in the Emerald Isle as the going at Listowel is currently given as heavy - goodness knows what it will be like by Saturday if they have further downpours!  Our runners, Premier Dane (Kerry National, Wednesday) and The Pier (handicap hurdle, Thursday) both left this morning so let's hope that they have an uneventful journey across the Irish Sea.

I see that the Monday Jury in the Racing Post focusses nearly entirely on Camelot in his failed bid to land the Triple Crown in Saturday's St Leger at Doncaster.  It is amazing how jockey Shane Foley defends Joseph O'Brien's ride on the equine superstar, but it does seem to be a common trend, the jockeys looking out for their own.  Interestingly Raceform analyst Mark Brown is much more straight talking - he believes that Camelot won a terrible Guineas, two weak Derby's and is simply not that good!  Surely Mark, all three races couldn't have been that bad?  I agree that it may not be a vintage crop of three year old's this season, but Camelot is easily the best of them - sadly the best horse didn't win on Saturday (and it certainly wasn't down to the trip as Camelot was closing all the way to the line)...I think the bottom line is that the winner was just given a tactically far superior ride.

Let's give our stable sponsors Bathwick Tyres a plug - they sponsored every race at Bath yesterday afternoon.  Where would our racecourses be without sponsors like Bathwick Tyres?  So come on, if you are a fan of racing and you need a new set of boots for your motor, ger yourself down to Bathwick Tyres (brances throughout the West country).

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Spurs manger Villas-Boas earned a reprieve at the weekend as they beat Reading 3-0.  Mind you, it looks as though it is going to be a long, hard season for Reading.  They will be in a fight to stay up along with the likes of Southampton and Norwich.  I thought that Arsenal looked very solid on Saturday and they seem to be sorting themselves out after a dubious start - they could be the team of the season, and no, I am not a Gooner fan!

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Watching the ladies golf, I was quite shocked at how bad the weather was.  The leaderboard was full of Korean and Japanese ladies which is quite a surprise as I bet they have never played in such terrible conditions.  The Brits on the other hand did not fare to well in conditions that they should be well versed in!