Slack Jawed Babbling

We dropped in to see the sisters on the way oop north. Auntie Betty was in predictably fine form. She liked my trainers and I said she could borrow them. “What size are you, Betty?” “Well, you know, I’m a five over here, but a seven in the States. Yeah. My feet don’t change sizes. They just have a different number here!” Classic Betty. Daughter No 1 was in physical pain, bobbing up and down with mirth. Betty’s been in fine form since she got here a fortnight ago. The first time we visited, she opened Granny’s door to us and with no fanfare whatsoever, shoed us inside. “Come in, come in”, she said and flicked thumb in the direction of the lounge.   It was only when we were inside and she recognised me that she stopped. “Oh my god it’s the Eya-atkinsons! I thought you were more nurses! It’s been like Grand Central in here with doctors and nurses coming and going!” She clasped the girls’ faces between her hands in turn and said “You’ve changed so much. Gorgeous girls. I’m s

So busy trying to find angles on the flat that I’ve overlooked posting the 40TF jumps results. Mildly surprising as I spent most of the Winter writing self-congratulatory updates about the burgeoning progress of the list. So it wouldn’t take a gambling psychoanalyst to deduce that the clanging silence since March indicates some less favourable results. That is indeed the case. Whilst there were a lot less runners from the stable post-Cheltenham, there were disproportionately more losers. The profit margin took some body blows. Overall though, a belting season. These are the bald stats. 1 st October 2013 – 31 st May 2014: 177 bets, £442 profit, £830 staked, 53.2% return on investment. This includes win, each ways and places. I’ve finally stopped including Exactas, Lucky 15s and other mug bets, even if the plotting of them keeps me meaningfully engaged most Saturday mornings. The high water mark was £551 after Trustan Times ran into a place in the Pertemps on the Thurs

The Summer project has moved up a gear   - just the one gear, mind - with some of last month’s picks re-emerging over recent days. Telescope was beaten again by Noble Mission at Chester. I fancied him pretty strongly to reverse positions, particularly with a 3lb pull. Instead, the improvement brought about by front-running the Lady Cecil inmate maintained enough of his advantage. The softish ground was probably Telescope’s main undoing.   He stays on the list. Better news about Gospel Choir who won the Yorkshire Cup courtesy of an extremely well judged ride from Ryan Moore and the fact that Tac De Boistron didn’t get a clear run. Moore, afterwards, was not so sure 1m6f is his trip. So it looks like next stop the Hardwicke. Gospel stays on the list for that. G Force was outstanding. Ridden with supreme confidence by Danny Tudhope, he blasted his way to the front at York and won with something in hand. The programme for 3-y-o sprinters is notoriously tricky, but this one