A lot has gone on since the old Poker 425 & Poker Week days. I did enjoy those couple of weeks in Vegas for PW. The thing I remember most was how bloody hot it was! Deciding that we would do our "opener" miles out into the desert didn't help matters either.

It'd be great if you did become a neighbour one day, you could join the golf club - they do good OAP rates I believe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Goose

Click to see full-size image.

Finally, at Luton Hoo (and the day had still not finished!) Tom Posted this lovely photo today, & it was almost as if he took this photo yesterday - but he did not.

Egyptian geese, of all things, in Luton Hoo, barely 2 miles from Luton Airport.

Look away now if you don't enjoy nature, as I've been up half the night reading up on them.

You should come down to Hampton Palace Golf Course when you get a spare moment. Apart from having a grass practice range, we also have plenty of Egyptian Geese, Canadian Geese, Parrots, Woodpeckers & Deer.

I'm starting to hit a few balls again, a few weeks after having the cast off of my broken wrist. Because the wrist isn't 100%, I'm swinging slower & have stopped my ridiculous overswing and I'm hitting the ball just as well as I used too!

lol, I may not have far to fall but I need to learn how to roll and not put my hand out in front of me. Plus I shouldn't got sprinting for a bus, like I was a 20yo, while under the influence!

I'm usually based in Teddington for work but they let me out now and again. We went on a shoot to a trainers yard & it's so good to be around the horses. They are the most loveable creatures but they can be quirky and down right dangerous too. Still, once the wrist has healed I'm vowing to ride more often.

There is a thinking / movement in racing that the big race days should be on a Saturday (I think the Ebor meeting at York will finish on a Saturday this year) but hopefully Cheltenham will stay Tuesday to Friday for some time (some people think it should be 5 days!!).

"Ascot Heath" was dropped a few years back & "Royal Ascot" now carries on to Saturday, which makes sense, the racing on the Saturday is still worthy of the "Royal" tag.

I'm off to Newbury on Saturday to produce their "Newbury TV" and then, in a couple of weeks, I'll be off to Liverpool for "Aintree TV".  I've been doing the Grand National gig for about 6 or 7 years now & it's great fun. I've never seen so much fake tan or so much flesh, regardless of the weather or the shape & size of the ladies.

This year will be a bit different for me as my right wrist / arm will still be in it's cast. I took a great tumble 3 weeks ago & broke my wrist quite badly, needing an operation to put a metal plate in to help the healing. I'm coping OK but I can't drive so I'm going to have to rely on other people to ferry me about, which I don't really like doing. And god knows how I'm going to put a shirt & tie on. Maybe RUK should employ a dresser for me

I feel I've now reached the age where I can fall over & break bones

Glory be, I'm struggling to recall a better renewal of the Chelteham Gold Cup than we had today. Great story, great drama, & the front three never flinched. Wonderful to watch.

NH racing at it's very very best.

I don't think I've enjoyed a Cheltenham Festival more than this one. There were some brilliant performances and the sight of Denman & Kauto Star kicking on turning for home with the much younger (and much hyped) Long Run breathing down their necks was magnificent.

On Racing UK, it's the week that we look forward to the most and the whole crew & presenters work their socks off putting together a show that, hopefully, the viewers enjoy.

This is a bit self indulgent but I hope you don't mind taking a look at our "closer" for the 4 days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhRtOTUYpnQ

I don't know if we can get it here, but in Kentucky (& I assume the rest of the US) you can now get KGC - Kentucky Grilled Chicken!

Yup, it is being rolled out in all the UK franchises between now & September, at a cost of £7 million. The griddle equipment is called a "Brazer", apparently.

Apparently, this will be KFC's first "griddled" product. There will also be a griddled burger, "only" 400 cals, as opposed to 491 cals for a proper non-griddled burger. Tortilla wraps, too.

I'll stick to Simply M & S for now, I think.

I used to live on KFC, & adored it (I still love it, in fact), but I'd wake up the next day feeling terrible.  For bad goodness, I stick to Pork Pies & Sausage Rolls now, full of sogoodness. When I'm not on a Diet caused by them, that is.

Meanwhile, I remain stranded in the 12-10 to 12-12 range. Bugger, Topm's gonna lap me soon.

Hope I've attached this pic correctly. It's the KFC Double Down Burger that has fried chicken breasts instead of buns, with cheese & bacon in the middle. Only 1,228 calories a go

I don't know if we can get it here, but in Kentucky (& I assume the rest of the US) you can now get KGC - Kentucky Grilled Chicken!

Thanks for that Steve, must have been terribly distresssing for all those who witnessed it first hand.

I assume, as a HorseRace TV Producer, you have a policy not to "linger" on situations where a horse falls heavily, or gets killed, in a jump race? As a viewer, I want to know if the horse is OK, but I don't want to actually see the result of the fall. Personally, I like it when the commentator utters the words "both horse & rider have got up safely".

You doing the Grand National this year, or Cheltenham?

I'm not sure if you've seen it, but one of the blonde Diaries I'm sure you'll enjoy is this one (below), written by an ex Racing Post journo, now a full time layabout & fashion icon. He has a white car with tinted windows, & a personalised plate. Honest, I kid you not.

It's here.....

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=51332.0

Yeah, we tend to join replays once the stricken horse is no longer in view.

After the Saturday at Newbury I was lucky enough to be invited to a box at Ascot & I met the owner of one of the fancied horses in the big race, a really sweet old lady that has probably bred & owned racehorses for years. She & her friends were full of beans as we sat down for lunch & she couldn't wait to get down to the paddock an hour or so later to see her horse get ready to race. Midway through, Pride of Dulcot lunges at a fence & shatters a leg and has to be destroyed. She didn't come back to the box.

And then today, we have a race voided because Star Player broke a leg at one of the hurdles and collapsed across the course and the rest of the field wouldn't have been able to race around him. A tough game this jumping lark.

I will be in the Teddington studios for Cheltenham & I will most likely be up at Aintree for the Grand National.

I'll take a look at that diary link soon. (A Racing Post journo becomes a layabout? I can't believe it)

A quite amazing story has developed at Newbury racecourse today, where several racehorses were accidentally killed by electrocution, after a faulty cable "earthed".

Two of them, I gather, just keeled over in the paddock, & died there & then, & several experienced burns in the mouth, where the "bit" is.

What an incredible thing.

Allegedly, only one sixth of the electric current required to kill a human is required to kill a horse.

The story starts near the foot of this page, on Chompy's diary.....

http://.com/forum/index.php?topic=51332.390

I was at Newbury today, producing their "Newbury TV". I had just asked the paddock cameraman to give me a close up of The Merry Giant when the horse started "playing up". Nothing too unusual about that, just a sign of a highly strung or nervous horse, I thought. Just as he calmed down, Fenix Too came into shot, jumping all over the place & we were focusing on him, with the live pictures going out across the racecourse, including the giant screens. It then became obvious that Fenix Too was "wrong behind" and his hind legs had gone. As I was telling our cameraman to "go wide" on the shot & getting the director to go to another camera out on the course, we noticed another horse (Marching Song) had collapsed and died. We were totally shocked in the OB Van by what we were witnessing.

There were hundreds of people around the paddock for the first race & it must have been most distressing for them to see all of that happen close up, not to mention how the owners must have felt.

There's a lot of speculation about what happened but some sort of electrocution is top of the list of theories. It seems that the horses were more affected when they were on the grass rather than the rubber walk way around the paddock. There will be a lot of enquiries to find out exactly what happened.

Racing UK's Nick Luck (who handled the event with spectacular professionalism) had an email sent to him from a colleague that reported on an incident at a horse arena sometime ago. Apparently there was a slightly broken cable 2 feet under the arena floor, which was wet, and that was enough electricity to kill the horses.  It seems that an electric shock that just gives humans a tingling sensation is enough to electrocute a horse.

A very sad day for all of those involved and, sadly, a day when Horse Racing will make the top news on TV & in the papers for all of the wrong reasons (again)

Hi Tony,

Hope all is well with you. I know how you love reading well written pieces, so I thought I'd give you this link:

http://thefiguresneverlie.blogspot.com/

It's written by James Willoughby, who was the Chief Racing Correspondent for the Racing Post until he resigned a couple of days ago. It's bit of a sad story and very few in the racing world knew about James' situation but this explains it all.

Thanks Steve, what a story that is.

I've been reading moany-woany Posts by poker players all evening next door, then I come back here & read that. They don't know they've lived.

Hope all is well with you.

I think moaning is a forum thing but even the hate mob over on Betfair have been wishing James well. A bit ironic seeming that many of his TV appearances or his written pieces were met with ridicule and spite on the Betfair forum.

James is an "outside the box" thinker and he has theories about why x, y or z happened in a race. I've worked with James on numerous American racing shows, including Kentucky Derbys and Breeders Cup & he is great fun.

He's also is (or was) an excellent poker player too. He loves the maths angle of it and I believe he had a very successful time playing cash online a couple of years back.

Hi Tony,

Hope all is well with you. I know how you love reading well written pieces, so I thought I'd give you this link:

http://thefiguresneverlie.blogspot.com/

It's written by James Willoughby, who was the Chief Racing Correspondent for the Racing Post until he resigned a couple of days ago. It's bit of a sad story and very few in the racing world knew about James' situation but this explains it all.

[I've witnessed first hand how they bully Assistant Producers & technical staff, talk loudly in the studio about who they shagged over the weekend etc. That was over 10 years ago for me & it seems nothing has changed.]

The Gray / Keys story is brilliant & they got their just deserts. I doubt anyone in TV will be feeling sorry for them as they are 2 of the most dreadful people you could ever work with. I've witnessed first hand how they bully Assistant Producers & technical staff, talk loudly in the studio about who they shagged over the weekend etc. That was over 10 years ago for me & it seems nothing has changed.
From the news that has been "leaked" I wonder if Sky were looking to get rid of them. Someone told me a while back that Gray & Keys weren't liked by the new management & they didn't help their cause by demanding a pay rise (I heard Gray gets £1.7 MILLION - to tell us what a great goal we've just seen!).  Now to have 2 recordings of their behaviour "leaked" to the press, were the Sky management team aware of how Gray / Keys were behaving and took steps to get evidence against them?

Sky certainly saves a few bob with them 2 now gone

Why do you think Sky allowed this open bullying and sexist behaviour to exist within their business for over a decade before they did something about it?

When I worked at Sky (graphics 1996-2000), the majority of the Exec / Senior producers were also sexist bullies, especially on Premier League Football. When I joined Sky, the Exec Producer had only just relented to allow women to work on PL, they might get pregnant half way through the season was the thinking!

To be honest, I don't think Grays/Keys gate is about sexism or bullying. I think the new management wanted them out & found a way to get rid of them. It's the way TV sometimes works unfortunately, the bosses always know that a popular presenter / star isn't quite right but they keep quiet until the whistle is blown or it's time to find an excuse to get rid. eg, TV Bosses knew all about John Leslie and his behaviour towards women, plus the Ulrika Johnson rape, but were happy for him to present Morning Line until the story broke.

For a little insight to Gray's / Key's behaviour, here is what a friend of a friend posted on Facebook the day the story first broke;

"Ladies you've no idea!!!! Keys is on atomically thin ice too!!! I know at least one of my mates was not so much propositioned as almost ordered to turn up at their hotel for... suffice to say she told the bastards to get fooked!!! Only wish she'd kept the voicemail."

I wonder if Soccer AM will still have the "Soccerette" feature this week and will their Ant & Dec in the Jungle spoof still have jokes about "rummaging around in Georgie Thompson's box"? And will Sky Sports News start employing female presenters who aren't the best looking in the world but are very knowledgeable about sport?

Sexism in the TV industry - whoda thunk it?

The Gray / Keys story is brilliant & they got their just deserts. I doubt anyone in TV will be feeling sorry for them as they are 2 of the most dreadful people you could ever work with. I've witnessed first hand how they bully Assistant Producers & technical staff, talk loudly in the studio about who they shagged over the weekend etc. That was over 10 years ago for me & it seems nothing has changed.

From the news that has been "leaked" I wonder if Sky were looking to get rid of them. Someone told me a while back that Gray & Keys weren't liked by the new management & they didn't help their cause by demanding a pay rise (I heard Gray gets £1.7 MILLION - to tell us what a great goal we've just seen!).  Now to have 2 recordings of their behaviour "leaked" to the press, were the Sky management team aware of how Gray / Keys were behaving and took steps to get evidence against them?

Sky certainly saves a few bob with them 2 now gone

13st 9lbs, (191.6 lbs). Suggests a 4lb loss on Day One, but obv wrong, & scale variance will even out over coming days & weeks.

Notwithstanding that, started well, & feel good today, after, at last, a great night's unbroken sleep.

Rennie count - Zero

Nurafen count - Zero.

probably an obvious question, but are you weighing yourself at the same time every day? I believe the best time is just after you wake up.

I'm trying to lose weight too. I've been on it for a week now. I feel better, lighter & fitter and I've lost..... ZERO bloody pounds!

I was hoping to get down to 11st from 12st by the end of Jan, I think I may need to lose a limb for that to happen!

Still the sales of lager, curries, chinese, sweets, crisps & sandwiches have gone down in the Teddington area

Yes Steve, first thing every morning, shower, shave, & other sh things, then the weigh-in. It's hard to find scales that are truly consistent though. Does not matter a jot in the long-term though.

You have lost zilch in a week? Wimp! You are not trying. Epic failure.

12st? Eh? You are only 3'-9" tall, man!

What you doing these days? Still the Horse Racing? You still see the geezer that does the Grand National TV coverage - Dave Gertfrund, or whatever? No word from DC, I assume?

We gotta go have that round of golf soon, but I gotta ease into it with Ralphy boy first. I've not held a golf club for 2 years or more. 6 years ago I was a Club Captain. Bizarre.

I may only be 3'9" tall but I'm incredibly wide!

Still working with Racing UK & loving it. Not sure if you mean Dave Gutfreund, the American guy? He was my presenter on the American racing, nothing to do with the Grand National. I saw him briefly in Chicago. He's got himself a girlfriend & a ready made family, 2 smashing boys.  No news from DC

Yes to the golf someday, it the weather ever picks up! I played for the first time in 3 months the other day. I'm supposed to be a 12 handicapper, I played more like a 112!

Hope all is well with you & you've got your house sorted.

13st 9lbs, (191.6 lbs). Suggests a 4lb loss on Day One, but obv wrong, & scale variance will even out over coming days & weeks.

Notwithstanding that, started well, & feel good today, after, at last, a great night's unbroken sleep.

Rennie count - Zero

Nurafen count - Zero.

probably an obvious question, but are you weighing yourself at the same time every day? I believe the best time is just after you wake up.

I'm trying to lose weight too. I've been on it for a week now. I feel better, lighter & fitter and I've lost..... ZERO bloody pounds!

I was hoping to get down to 11st from 12st by the end of Jan, I think I may need to lose a limb for that to happen!

Still the sales of lager, curries, chinese, sweets, crisps & sandwiches have gone down in the Teddington area