General Musings

This week was all about the dogs as far as going racing goes. I was at Towcester on Thursday and Friday for the heats of the Star Sports Greyhound Derby. The weather was lovely, it's the start of the biggest greyhound competition of the sport in the UK and it was great fun. Mind you, you wouldn't want to be a bookmaker at the heats. There were plenty of people there but very few of them were betting. There were some lumpy, £1000 and £2000 bets but very little else. There were a couple of races, even with the sponsors where it looked as if they might not take a bet at all. I'm sure it will pick up a bit and I'll be there apart from the meetings that clash with the Derby at Epsom and Royal Ascot. 

I was up at York on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I had an excellent Dante Meeting up there with Star Sports but must admit my heart, as it often is, was at Newton Abbot. Nigel Hawke's Inferno Sacree won again down there. What a superstar he's been for the yard. It was excellent for Nigel that he was winning for the second time in as many runs on ITV and that his training skills had another well-deserved nationwide audience. York also meant that on Thursday I missed the official launch of Hawke Barn,  Katherine and Nigel Hawke's wedding and special event venue. It's a wonderful space, here's their website for more details. HAWKE BARN

It's been a fairly exciting week, I went to Lambourn to visit Mick Fitzgerald to interview him for the Star Sports #BettingPeople series. This one is out now, it was a very frank and at times emotional interview, don't miss it. Last week's was with Irish betting industry character of the highest order Dave O'Reilly who was top class with some tremendous stories. 

My first diary entry, just an idea I had. Is there any interest in a diary of a Devon based racing man? Who, knows but here goes, I'm about to find out.