Huntingdon Runner

This afternoon there are five meetings taking place with flat cards from Newcastle, Nottingham and Brighton while there are also jumps fixtures from Hexham and Huntingdon.  Stable jockey Tom Scudamore heads to Huntingdon where he rides The Two Amigos for the Pond House team in the 8.05pm race, a 3m1f handicap hurdle.  He was a good second at Taunton over three miles on good ground on his penultimate start and while he is 3lbs higher here, a reproduction of that effort would see him go close.

I see that Too Many Diamods who won four times in the space of eight days is due to go up 30lbs for his little spree.  His trainer ran him with 14lbs and 21lbs penalties so he was still 'well-in' according to the handicapper.  It will be interesting to see how he fares when he returns from a break.

Trainer Jamie Osborne had to go to £4,000 to keep his winner of the seller at Leicester yesterday.  Mind you, he is a ten year old and does not look especially well treated from a handicap mark of 90.  He may be difficult to place.

*****

I had to laugh yesterday when I saw Sir Anthony McCoy practicing for the Pro-Am golf at Wentworth.  He was asked what he thought about Arsenal football manager Arsene Wenger (AP is a big Arsenal fan) and he sat on the fence a bit - a bit like in his riding days!  He said, "Arsene has been a great manager" - tell us something we don't know AP!  Anyway, Arsenal are 7/2 to lift the FA Cup...they could certainly do with a bit of silverware.

Don't forget it is the Europa Cup Final tomorrow and Manchester United take on Ajax on BT Sport.  United are slight odds-on - if it were the old United team they would be a good bet but at the prices I reckon Ajax could be worth an interest at odds of 4/1.

I understand that Norwich's new manager is likely to be Daniel Farke.  Who you ask is Mr Farke?  Well, he's the Dortmund reserves manager...I cannot believe that there is not someone in England who is capable of managing Norwich.

Formula One star Jenson Button says that 'he will drive off into the sunset' if he is not up to speed at this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix.  The Brit makes a one-off return to Formula One on Sunday as current number one driver Fernando Alonso competes in the Indy 500.  Button is paid £5 million to be McLaren's reserve driver - he went in a simulator and looked a bit rusty, crashing twice and rolling his virtual car into the sea.  Let's hope he fares better this weekend, his return is certainly good for the sport.

*****

Mrs Barnes is one of those people who keeps talking even when no-one is interested anymore...you guessed it, she's a school teacher!

Tweet