Jack the Jouneyman; PlayPen nag up for the craic!

We have a horse!

The Pension PlayPen is leasing, for a week, “Jack the Journeyman”. The nag is trained by Rebecca Curtis in Wales and will be running in a bumper at Stratford or Ffos Las on Saturday (13th).

He will probably have Tony McCoy aboard and stands a good chance. Good luck to Rebecca with “Tea for Three” in this afternoon’s Grand National – we’re all on!

If you are free on Saturday and want a great day out, come and join the Pension PlayPen, on a first come first served basis , I’ll have some free tickets to give away (owners get a great deal at racetrack).

So why?

There is nothing better than owning a winner of a racecourse, even if you own half a leg! To be able to greet your horse as it returns from the track and lead him or her into the winners enclosure is something I’ve always wanted (the only time my horse won I was in a betting shop in Whitehall with my mate Dick Strattan, while the Good Guy trotted up in Ludlow).

But when our little filly Miss Firefly came third in a good race at the Goodward Festival, I was there and I reckon it one of my very best memories.

But this is a collective thrill, all 3288 members of the Pension PlayPen can log onto the web on Saturday on Saturday evening and see if “our horse won”!

Thanks to Eamonn O’Connor, JLT’s top man and our good friend for leasing us his horse.

If you want to give me a bell and join us (wherever we end up) on Saturday, drop me a line on henry.tapper@pensionplaypen.com .

Oh and the name…

Crazy Jane and Jack the Journeyman

I know, although when looks meet
I tremble to the bone,
The more I leave the door unlatched
The sooner love is gone,
For love is but a skein unwound
Between the dark and dawn.

A lonely ghost the ghost is
That to God shall come;
I – love’s skein upon the ground,
My body in the tomb –
Shall leap into the light lost
In my mother’s womb.

But were I left to lie alone
In an empty bed,
The skein so bound us ghost to ghost
When he turned his head
passing on the road that night,
Mine must walk when dead.

W B Yeats

National jockey Walsh defends sport (standard.co.uk)
Rebecca Curtis: Taking West Coast main line to Cheltenham Festival (independent.co.uk)
Jack the Jouneyman; PlayPen nag up for the craic! (henrytapper.com)
Grand National: Katie Walsh carries the hope of redemption for her sport (independent.co.uk)
Grand National set for Walsh v Welsh battle (thenewstribe.com)
Why the allure of the Grand National has me coming back year after year (dailyrecord.co.uk)
Grand National set for sunny day and a record £300MILLION in bets (mirror.co.uk)
National jockey Walsh defends sport (belfasttelegraph.co.uk)
Sea of green ensures good craic (belfasttelegraph.co.uk)