Great Day Ahead!

It is a big day for racing with four meetings taking place this afternoon and three competitive jumps cards from Ascot, Taunton and Haydock as well as an all-weather flat card at Lingfield.  The stable has runners at all three National Hunt meetings and I will be the busiest today as I am off to Taunton where we have five runners.  Mount Haven (pictured above), For 'N' Against, Vif Argent, Softsong and Virtuel d'Oudon represent the stable at Taunton, Amigo runs in the Peter Marsh at Haydock (Broadway Buffalo is a non-runner), while David goes to Ascot where Willem makes his debut for the stable.  This ex-French gelding had some decent form in France and was close up when falling at the last in a good race at Auteuil - the testing ground should prove no hindrance to him having won on heavy ground at Compiegne.  It looks like a good race but a big run is still expected.

Unsurprisingly all eyes will be on Ascot this afternoon where former champion chaser Sprinter Sacre makes his long awaited reappearance in the 3.00pm race.  On old form even money would look like an absolute steal, although with the type of setback he has had you will have no idea if he retains all of his ability until he comes under pressure.  His opponents are no mugs, (including Dodging Bullets who is fit and well and has recent form) so I just hope that Sprinter Sacre runs well and comes back safe and sound.

Part owner of The New One, Gino will be panicking today as his pride and joy is 1/6 to score at Haydock this afternoon.  It's another £42,000 in the bank that will never be seen again!  I think it costs Gino that much to put us up the week during the Grand National meeting!

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As I reported yesterday, Rory McIlroy doesn't look in bad nick on his first start of the golfing season and he even managed to record his first hole in one yesterday.  He looked well pleased, although I am not sure if he won a car as it was the third hole in one of the week!  The Barnes family have recorded nine holes in one between us, my son Lester is a scratch golfer and has had five of them!

Speaking of which, golfer: "Do you think I could get there with a five iron?"
Caddy: "Eventually!"

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There is some good footballing action to look forward to this afternoon and I will be having a little tickle on Manchester City at 5/6, Spurs at 4/6, Everton at 10/11, Derby at 3/4 and Norwich at 4/6.  The Manchester City versus Arsenal game on Sunday should be a cracker, so you know where I will be tomorrow!