Four Newbury Runners

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with two jumps cards from Newbury and Doncaster and all-weather flat fixtures at Lingfield and Wolverhampton.  The stable runs Brook, Barneby, Vif Argent and Obistar at Newbury.  Obistar (pictured above, nearside) is a thorough stayer as he showed when a game winner on heavy ground at Plumpton last time out.  This is tougher, although he should go well once again with stable jockey Tom Scudamore taking over in the saddle.

We drew a blank at Taunton yesterday with Herbert Park and Alternatif both finishing second.  Both were giving away plenty of weight to their rivals and Herbert Park was giving away lots in terms of experience as well.  They should both be winning again before long and the same comments apply to the horses that beat them Mister Grez and Dragons Den.

I see that trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies has told the Press that he believes The New One is entitled to be joint favourite for the Champion Hurdle at next month's Cheltenham Festival.  You can still get 3/1 about The New One - let's hope that Nigel is right!  Talking of trainers, one of our former employees Charlie Wallis had his first winner as a trainer yesterday at Southwell.  Charlie had a conditional jockeys' licence and rode 29 winners during his riding career - he was a likeable sort of lad, so well done to him.

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Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool were both beaten in the Europa League by Fiorentina and Besiktas.  I am not sure that many of the Premier League sides want to be in this competition - they never seem to turn out their best team.  Spurs rested their top goal scorer Harry Kane as they want him fit and well for Sunday's Capital One Final against Chelsea at Wembley.  I'm not sure that any of the top clubs want to be in that competition either, so it shows you where the Europa League figures in their plans when they are resting players for the Capital One Cup!  One person who will be there cheering on Tottenham is Ashley Farrant - Ashley has a broad West Country accent so how he has come to be a Spurs fan I will never know!

While we are on the subject of football, I was surprised to hear that Hull's Michael Dawson was shocked that his team were towards the bottom of the table.  Obviously he is not a very good judge of football teams!

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British number one tennis player Andy Murray was hammered yesterday by Croat wonderkid Borna Coric 6-1 6-3 in just 79 minutes in the quarter finals of the Dubai Duty Free.  Coric is currently ranked number 84 in the world.  Great Britain take on America next week in Glasgow - not the best preparation for Murray.

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Finally, cops are investigating after a man's fingertips were found in a garden in Keswick, Cumbria.  They had a tip off, although they have not fingered anyone yet!