Fly-Mo!

It was another good day for the yard yesterday with success in the Grade 3 feature chase with Master Overseer who produced a typically gutsy performance under a never-say-die ride from Tom Scudamore.  They did look like they were going in slow motion towards the finish but Master Overseer (known affectionately as Mo) is a resolute galloper, so long as stamina is at a premium, he can slog it out with the best of them.  Meanwhile young conditional jockey Francis Hayes must have been responsible for recovery of the day following his last flight blunder aboard Dan Breen - both of Frank's legs were on the same side of the horse!  He was quickly back in place and rode him out to finish a fine third although he may well have finished second without that error.

Sales of the Daily Mirror are up today after Frank's legion of fans have been buying up copies of the paper this morning.  There is a great picture on the front page of their racing supplement of his daredevil heroics.

It looks like being a great afternoon of racing action, especially now that Lingfield have been given the all-clear to race.  There are four meetings taking place this afternoon, three over the sticks at Cheltenham, Doncaster and Lingfield as well as a flat card at Wolverhampton.  It is a bumper day for the yard with no less than eleven runners at the three jumps meetings.  Sir Frank and Battle Group are on duty for the stable at Doncaster and will be ridden by Tom Bellamy, while Bladoun, Take Over Sivola, Star Of Angels, African Broadway and Tanerko Emery will be partnered by Conor O'Farrell at Lingfield.  At Cheltenham Garynella makes his debut for the yard having won in France last time out and looks interesting from a low weight.  Notus de la Tour is our runner in the big chase and he looks to be nicely weighted too with only 10-8 to carry while His Excellency competes in the same race under champion jockey AP McCoy.  Our Father completes the team at Prestbury Park and bids to further enhance his burgeoning reputation by following-up his impressive success at the course last time.

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Below you will see a short video of No Secrets doing treadmill work.  This is just a part of the routine at Pond House.

No Secrets Treadmill from David Pipe on Vimeo.

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Whatever next?!  I see that the Tour de France is going to start in Leeds - I suppose Leeds does remind me a bit of Paris!  I hope they are going to tell the riders to ride on the other side of the road!

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Looking to the football QPR must beat local rivals Fulham if they are going to stay up.  It is getting desperate for 'Arry - only wins will do from now on.  Arsenal go to Reading on Monday night, so at last manager Arsene Wenger will have a peaceful weekend.  I will be having a cheeky little treble this weekend on Liverpool, Norwich and Cardiff.