I spoke to a friend in the financial markets this morning – he said “these are the days when you keep the papers for posterity”. We’ve had plenty of supposed crashes in the twenty five years he’d been in the city for, but nothing to match the events of recent days. Lehmans gone, Merrill Lynch and Halifax swallowed up, AIG bailed out by the Fed to the tune of $80 billion. They are the sort of headlines that don’t mean much to anyone who doesn’t follow the financial markets, but they are very real and very meaningful.
I thought the most positive thing to happen was that the Fed (the US treasury) didn’t bail out Lehmans – they allowed them to crash and burn. The big picture is incredibly ugly, and it’s not going to unwind without a bit of bloodletting. I’m happy to be away from it all.
I recently posted a picture of a Pivotal yearling I bought last year – I think she’s a real peach. Her full sister Sri Kandi ran yesterday and won, landing a gamble in the process – she ran green and only won half a length, but she looked impressive.
Bet Noir goes tonight in the 6:50 at Great Leighs, and she’s probably going to be favourite. I think she should have won last time, and I think she’ll be even better over the longer distance tonight. She should have a very strong chance.