Tom Roper's Weblog

Amphibian racing: Ascot and Haydock

The recent and forecasted weather seems more suited to frog-racing or some other species of amphibian. Nevertheless, in the belief that racing at Ascot and Haydock will go ahead, here are my selections:
1220 Haydock: Balder Success
1250 Haydock: Ile de Re
210 Ascot: Finian's Rainbow
230 Haydock: Katkeau
245 Ascot: Oscar Whisky
305 Haydock: Silvanico Conti
320 Ascot: Pepite Rose

Cheltenham: Paddy Power Gold Cup

It has to be Grands Cru. I post a little late, and my first selection managed second place in the 12:45, but for postertiry, I include it here.

Cheltenham 12:45: Vasco du Ronceray
Cheltenham 155; Problema Tic
Cheltenham 235: Grands Cru
Cheltenham 305: Goulanes

 

Barnet casino

I have been following events in the London Borough of Barnet with some interest. I worked there, from 1978 to 1986, in my first jobs in libraries. To my horror, it has now become a locus classicus, a horrible example for the whole nation of what is in store for libraries, and all our public services. I worked in a well-staffed and stocked service, though we had to defend staffing and stock levels against both the council and national government cuts. Now they propose seven professional librarians for the whole borough. When I worked there we had more than that in the Hendon library alone. 

If you want to follow every twist and turn of the Barnet story, Mrs Angry (a former Barnet library worker) documents it admirably in her Broken Barnet blog. And I recently came upon this splendid animation, which says it all :

I wish I were at Kelso

Alas, instead I am on a London-bound train. For today, the death-rattle of the flat, I select these:
200 Doncaster: Dorcas Lane
235 Doncaster: Kirthill
250 Wincanton: Prospect Wells
310 Doncaster: Sirius Prospect
325 Wincanton: Golden Chieftain

Ascot, Down Royal and Wetherby

Now race meetings begin early in the day, and end at tea-time. The going will be sub-aquatic today, I suspect, especially at Down Royal, a racecourse I have never visited, but dearly want to.

Down Royal 225: Quito de la Roque
Ascot 235: Ile de Re
Ascot 310: Ace High
Wetherby 325: Planet of Sound