There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with two over the sticks at Ascot and Uttoxeter supported by a couple of all-weather flat cards from Southwell and Wolverhampton.  The stable has runners at both jumps meetings - Qalinas and All Force Majeure at Uttoxeter and Batavir at Ascot.  Conditional jockey Michael Heard is aboard Qalinas for his seasonal debut, while Tom Scudamore rides Worcester bumper winner All Force Majeure (pictured above).  Meanwhile Batavir is partnered by a certain A P McCoy - I am sure I have heard of him somewhere before!  A P's strike rate for the yard is quite impressive - it currently stands at 50%, so let's hope he can improve on that again today.  Having finished third over the minimum trip at Leicester on his debut for the stable, Batavir takes a step up in trip which looks sure to suit.

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What a performance from Gevrey Chambertin yesterday to win the novices' handicap chase at Newbury with a commanding front-running performance.  From a mark 18lbs lower than his best hurdle rating there was always the possibility he could produce an effort like this and granted an uncontested lead in the first-time blinkers he measured his fences much better than in previous chase starts.  Tom Scu got his fractions right from the front and 'Geoffrey' kept pulling out more to score at odds of 9/1 - let's hope that this has been something of a confidence booster and he can now build on this success and fulfill the potential that David has always known he possesses.  Meanwhile Vayland still looked to be going well when coming to grief three from home in the novices' hurdle and looks a certain future winner.

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Today there are four meetings taking place with two jumps cards from Ludlow and Newbury and a couple of all-weather flat cards from Lingfield and Kempton.  David is off to Newbury today where the stable has four runners; Gevrey Chambertin, Captainofindustry, Sivron and Vayland.  Gevrey Chambertin is an interesting prospect - he is certainly weighted to go well over the larger obstacles (his hurdle mark is currently 18lbs higher) although he is yet to reproduce that sort of performance so far over fences.  Meanwhile impressive Hexham bumper winner Vayland makes his debut for the stable in the novice hurdle and he looks like an exciting prospect.  Tom Scudamore rides him and Gevrey Chambertin as well as Captainofindustry, while Conor O'Farrell is aboard our other runner Sivron.

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There are three meetings taking place this afternoon with a jumps card from Catterick and a couple of all-weather flat fixtures from Kempton and Southwell.  Just when I think the prize money cannot get any worse, step forward Southwell to raise (or should that be lower?) the bar - £25,000 for a seven race card is scandalous in my opinion and they are very fortunate to have attracted the fields that they have.  I think this record low could stand for a while!  Anyway, I digress - the stable has no runners today and our next racecourse representatives are likely to come tomorrow at Ludlow and/or Newbury.

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***UPDATE***

Volt Face - Non-runner 2.55pm Ffos Las

There are three meetings taking place this afternoon with two jumps meetings at Ffos Las and Plumpton as well as an all-weather flat card at Wolverhampton.  The stable has one runner this afternoon, Volt Face who takes part in the handicap hurdle at Ffos Las.  He finished a good third at Towcester last time out on soft ground and would appear to hold solid claims.  We drew a blank over the weekend, although Stars Over The Sea, Easter Meteor, Border Breaker and Softsong all picked up prize money.

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Today we have two jumps cards at Carlisle and Southwell and the ground is described as heavy at both tracks.  AP rides a couple at Southwell which look quite interesting.  David does not have any runner and Tom Scu has a rare day off so he can spend some time with the kids and Lottie!  I see a full brother to Frankel is 100/1 to win the 2016 Derby.  I think I would want bigger odds than that!  I did not realise how many entries the Derby gets, it is 475 this year, I wonder what the entry fee is?

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   Kings Palace Winning at Cheltenham

It was great to see Kings Palace put in another fine performance to win at Cheltenham yesterday.  I thought he jumped as well as I've ever seen a horse jump a round of fences at the track yesterday, especially for a novice.  On eight pounds worse terms with Sausalito Sunrise from their previous meeting I thought he beat him even more comprehensively and I think he is very decent.  I see he is now favourite for the RSA chase at the Festival and I think it will take a good one to beat him.  Standing Ovation still looked to be going okay when he knuckled and fell at the third last and it was a shame as he had also jumped superbly.  I am pleased to report that he and all our runners from yesterday are fine this morning which is most important.

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