Farewell England

So that's it then I suppose, the Nats have it, a proper mandate and a(nother) referendum beckons, of course it won't really mean the end of the Union, the people don't want that, they just couldn't bear to vote for potato head, who can blame them, and the LibDems were obviously in for a drubbing up and down the nation as their raison d'etre gradually wains, and the Tories up here; well, they are probably only going to have taxpayers voting for them and as in this curious nation only one in eight actually stump up on that front they haven't much hope.  Hmm, I voted LibDem actually because the candidate runs our local farm supply shop (rather badly in my view) and I can't remember whether I put a cross next to the Tories for my second vote or went for the Nats as an anti-potato-head-protest-vote.  Oh dear, the great things about Salmond are that he's mad on racing, he's a Royalist, he's good company and he's a brilliant politician who will fight Scotland's corner better than anyone; we should look for the upside in independence, control of our own fixture list will be a big start, nominations please for the first Chief Executive of the Scottish Horseracing Authority, and it would help if we could get our hands on all that lovely revenue from "our" oilfields.  You never know, it might just work if Salmond can sell a vision of a low tax, low red tape, small public sector economy that rewards endeavour, a million miles from where we are now but if he goes the other way there will be a mass exodus of people that can earn money and that 1 in 8 figure will probably become about 1 in 50 for those that remain............ interesting times.
Apologies, politics on the racing blog, unforgiveable, next thing I'll be trying to sell horses on it, leave that to the website.  On that front I struggle to keep much of it up to date and am looking at a new version to launch late summer, suggestions welcome.
The rain hasn't  affected the ground at Hexham which reamins good to firm so no runners there, we are planning to take three to the Cumberland p2p at Aspatria, hope the ground is OK.  Bit of rain here, enough to bring the riverbank gallop back into action so most of the horses worked there this morning.  Encouraging x-rays of Isla Pearl Fisher's surgery, he will be ridden for 10 days or so starting on Monday prior to be turned away to grass for six weeks. 

Isla Pearl Fisher