Shuffle Second At Ayr

This afternoon there are four meetings taking place - three on the all-weather at Kempton, Lingfield and Southwell and a jumps card at Musselburgh (subject to an ealy morning inspection).  The amazing thing is that the ground at Musselburgh is officially good/firm!  They must have missed all the rain and snow that seemed to blight the remainder of the country.  We had runners in Scotland yesterday afternoon at Ayr and I thought that The Tracey Shuffle performed creditably to finish a close second in the novices' chase on his first start since taking a nasty fall in September.  He did make a couple of errors down the far side on the final circuit, but other than that he jumped very well indeed and just bumped into a useful rival on the day.  The winner Tap Night did score a shade comfortably but The Tracey Shuffle should have little problem winning more races judged by this showing.

This afternoon there are four meetings taking place - three on the all-weather at Kempton, Lingfield and Southwell and a jumps card at Musselburgh (subject to an ealy morning inspection).  The amazing thing is that the ground at Musselburgh is officially good/firm!  They must have missed all the rain and snow that seemed to blight the remainder of the country.  We had runners in Scotland yesterday afternoon at Ayr and I thought that The Tracey Shuffle performed creditably to finish a close second in the novices' chase on his first start since taking a nasty fall in September.  He did make a couple of errors down the far side on the final circuit, but other than that he jumped very well indeed and just bumped into a useful rival on the day.  The winner Tap Night did score a shade comfortably but The Tracey Shuffle should have little problem winning more races judged by this showing.

It was the unveiling of the Grand National weights yesterday and there are certainly some runners that have been given interesting marks by the handicapper, not least topweight Tidal Bay who has been given a mark 9lbs lower than his current official rating.  Indeed, he may now bypass Cheltenham altogether to go to Aintree - if you are interested in backing this one, I guess you will know your fate quite early.  He strikes me as one of those horses that will either love or loathe a race of this nature.

On a weight of 10-8 The Package looks to be reasonably treated with his Hennessy fourth looking like particularly strong form, although he does have it to do with Tidal Bay on these terms.  At odds of around 25/1 he looks to be worth an interest.  The other one that stands out is former Gold Cup winner Imperial Commander who is currently on offer at odds of 40/1.

Pictured above is a photograph of Poole Master on the gallops earlier in the week completing his exercise under Hadden Frost.  Poole Master, three times a winner over hurdles for us last season has made a decent transition to fences having finished runner-up on behind useful sorts on both his starts to date.  He could very well go to Kelso tomorrow.

*****

What about the punter in Airdrie who was caught trying to break out of his local betting shop?  He fell asleep in the toilet (and I can't say I'm surprised) during evening all-weather racing.  The police let him go at 11.20pm...I suppose you could say that the bookie had a sleeper in his book (shop)!

*****

I didn't think that Celtic looked to be three goals worse than Juventus last night.  Celtic had plenty of possession but just could not score.  Juventus were clinical in their finishing and while they deserved to win, the margin of victory does flatter them slightly.  I do think that the referees need to do something about the defenders grabbing hold of attackers in the penalty area, especially from corner kicks.  To my mind Juventus should have had men sent off for this particular offence.

Real Madrid take on Manchester United this evening and it is televised at 7.45pm...it doesn't get much better than that!  I hope that Tony Lomas is not out there causing trouble, running around with his shirt off!