Horseracing

Today sees the start of the 2009 Flat racing season, and the first big race of the year, the William Hill Lincoln (Heritage Handicap) run over a mile at Doncaster (3.55). The 'Lincoln' is always a tricky affair, as most of the horses have been 'laid out' for the race. The horse we are going to put forward for this valuable £125,000 added race is Huzzah, a 4.y.o. bay colt, trained at Lambourn by Barry Hills (pictured right), and ridden by his son Michael. Huzzah is an early type, winning both of his first two starts in 2008, at Newbury and Chester. He goes on any ground, having won on good/firm and good/soft and he ran well on this track last September when running third to a horse called Virtual, beaten under 2 lengths. But for being slowly away on that occasion he may well have won. The high draw may well prove an advantage and he runs here off a fair handicap mark. You can never be confident in a race like the 'Lincoln' but we are hopeful that Huzzah will run a big race and we expect to see him there or thereabouts at the business end of the race. Barry Hills won this race in 2003 with a horse called Pablo (Won 5/1).
Footnote
The Lincoln is a one mile handicap flat race for four year olds and over, run usually in March at Doncaster racecourse. The Lincoln at Doncaster was first run there in 1965 but the actual history of the race goes back much further. The race was moved to Doncaster after the closure of its original venue Lincoln Racecourse which ceased holding race meetings in 1964. The race had first been run at Lincoln in 1853. At Lincoln the race was known as the Lincolnshire Handicap. The 2007 race was run at Newcastle Racecourse (1m 3yds) and the 2006 race was run at Redcar Racecourse.

Today's Smile

Blankney Pictures

The Lake, Blankney Hall

As you walked out of the front door of Blankney Hall, it led onto a terrace, which in turn stepped down into the sunken gardens. Beyond the sunken gardens a path led down to the lake. The lake was a man made structure, circling a small island, accessed by the wooden bridge pictured above. At the north end of the lake stood a summer house. Growing along the eastern bank of the lake was a mass of bamboo canes giving the waters edge a tropical feel. In more modern times the lake became known as bamboo island, because of this unusual feature.

Brainteaser - Friday's Answer

How did you get on with the Friday brainteaser? The answer to the ten 'trivia' questions are set out below.

01 In Babylon.
02 From Paris.
03 A colony.
04 St. Peter's, in Rome.
05 Alaska.
06 Five.
07 A lama.
08 Heat.
09 In mosques.
10 Constellations.

9/10 Excellent 7/8 Very Good 5/6 Good - Below 5 Could do better!

Pot Calling The Kettle Black

The fate of £954m deposited by more than 100 councils and other public bodies in Icelandic banks remains uncertain. Seven of those councils have been accused of investing £33 into the banks just days before they collapsed, despite warnings about their solvency. Whilst the councils are being pilloried for their apparent incompetence, two things should be taken into account. Firstly, the Audit Commission, the countries spending watchdog, who announced lessons had to be learnt, had themselves invested £10m into these same banks. This led to one council rejecting the criticism and claiming it was a case of the 'pot calling the kettle black'. Secondly, the Conservatives claim that the Treasury was aware of concerns about the stability of the Icelandic banking system early in 2008, but failed to pass the information on to local councils. As long ago as 30 September the credit ratings of Glitnir and Landsbanki, two of Iceland's biggest banks, were downgraded to 'adequate', below the deemed acceptable under guidance to Town Halls. Despite the alarm bells already ringing several councils continued to invest millions of pounds during early October, a week before the two banks went bust. All this suggests mistakes were made by the councils, the government and the Audit Commission. Why did all these authorities invest in the banks of one of the smallest countries in the world, after all, they are hardly recognised as one of the great financial institutions of the global economy. The simple reason was, they offered higher interest rates to investors than any one else in the financial sector. In reality, the root cause of the problem arose because none of the investing authorities took into account the wisdom behind an old adage that says "if something looks too good to be true.....it usually is."