Welcome to room 157 of the official media hotel for the 2009 Breeders' Cup, not a greeting I expect to use again this week.

This is my first trip to Santa Anita and I've yet to see the racetrack. That's because of problems with a tug.

LAX is one of the few airports nowadays when the pilot switches off the engine and is towed into his or her gate. It works well. Apart from when the tug breaks down.

There were tears before bedtime on BA283 from Heathrow. Not least from an irate Dane who had spent much of the 11-hour journey standing up when the seatbelt signs were illuminated.

He was one more piece of petulance away from a tasering. I would gladly have administered it too after he took the final braised beef meal.

The delay in arrival meant I shelved plans to get a bus and train combo to the hotel, instead I hopped aboard the Shuttle service, door to door for $25.

It works a treat too, especially as I was the only passenger aboard despite three increasingly desperate loops of the airport by the man behind the wheel..

It was an injustice the driver could never quite come to terms with.

He said four words in the entire one-hour, bumper-to-bumper, journey. "Yes all the time" when asked if the traffic was often this bad?

He should have been on the Disneyland route - that bus was full.

All he got was a slightly sweaty overweight Englishman who was dropping to sleep at regular intervals.

Ah, the perils of jet lag. I've been warned not to expect any sleep tonight, thankfully not by the resident of 159 who is an absolute doppelganger of Jeremy from Airport.

So the real fun starts tomorrow.

I have a new laptop bag courtesy of Breeders' Cup and an invite to the Post Position Draw.

The blog will start early. It has to because of the eight-hour time difference. You people will kill me.

So all emails gratefully received to daveord55@googlemail.com.

We've all sorts of fun and games planned for the week but first a Mexican feast with an open bar is calling me. Well I am human after all.

Jet lag - pah. See you at 5am local time. On second thoughts, make that six.