It's a busy day on the racing front with no less than eight meetings taking place; six on the flat at Ripon, Chester, Doncaster, Lingfield, Newbury and Newmarket, while there are two fixtures over the sticks from Market Rasen and Perth.  The stable has two runners at Market Rasen; Ainsi Fideles who is unbeaten in two starts since switching to fences and Bathwick Man who was narrowly beaten at Newton Abbot on Wednesday.  David has been forced to run our nine year old again quickly as he will likely face a rise in the weights for his narrow defeat.  He has not won for quite a while, so if he doesn't put his head in front today he will certainly struggle from a revised rating.

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David and Tom Scu are away this weekend in Italy - they have gone to Palio Di Siena.  There is a horse race that takes place there twice a year in July and August - they lay dirt down on the road and they race along the streets.  I bet Tom wouldn't fancy the leg up in one of those races!  Our jockey's certainly wouldn't be able to complain about the firm ground - over there it really is like a road!  I forgot to say, Professor Caroline Tisdall (pictured above, 2nd left at on the gallops last week) is a big follower of the race and is out there living it up with the boys.

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I have to say I am starting to feel a lot better about my wager on England to win the Test cricket series.  This has to be the worst Indian team to come to these shores in many years.  They were bowled out for just 148 in their first innings and England are 62 without loss in reply.  I hope you don't have a ticket for the fifth day, or maybe even the fourth - it doesn't look like getting that far!  I'm not sure England have improved that much in the past few weeks, so it really does beg the question how are India so bad?

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I suppose Tony Pulis must have lost on of his pre-season friendlys...sacked already before a ball is kicked in anger.  I would love to see him at West Ham.

My weekend treble is on Arsenal at 2/7, Liverpool at 4/11 and Manchester United at 4/11 - it looks like easy money to me!

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