Double At Taunton

It was another good day for the stable yesterday as we enjoyed a double at our local track courtesy of Perspicace and Vayland in the two divisions of the novices' hurdle at Taunton.  I have to say that I was particularly impressed by our first winner Perspicace (pictured right) who was making his debut for the stable and was having his first outing over hurdles.  He jumped well and won with quite a bit in hand and looks just the type to follow-up under a penalty.  Meanwhile bumper winner Vayland had to work slightly harder to reward odds-on backers, although he is only young and already looks like a chaser in the making.

Tom Scudamore's double yesterday took him ahead of Richard Johnson into a clear second in the jockeys' championship with 132 winners - it really has been an incredible season for him, while David is enjoying similar success with 108 wins to his name and he is still the leading trainer numerically.  I have to say that the current jumps trainers table indicates why prize money is a daft method of deciding the title - while 8 winners at the Festival is an amazing performance, I still do not think that it is right that Willie Mullins should be third in the trainers championship with a total of 15 winners.  It is a similar story on the flat each year with the likes of Aidan O'Brien consistently finishing ahead of the likes of Mark Johnston despite training only a handful of winners compared to a couple of hundred.  Until they change it back, the table will always look unbalanced to me.

There are three meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Exeter and Wetherby as well as an all-weather flat card from Southwell.  We have one runner this afternoon as A Hairy Koala takes in the novices' handicap hurdle at Exeter.  Our five year old has had six starts to date and has hinted at some ability in bumpers and hurdles and he looks to have been found a realistic opportunity here.

It is hard to believe that yesterday Sir Mark Prescott trained his first National Hunt winner when his Sea Pride won the bumper at Southwell.  You would think that with all the talent that has been through his stables down the years he may have sent out a few over the sticks.

I was very surprised to read a headline in the Post that said "Moon Racer's talent has been a big surprise" - it certainly wasn't at Pond House as I hadn't spoken to a single person in the yard who doesn't think the world of him.  There were quite a few others who weren't surprised either given how heavily the 9/2 favourite was backed on the day en route to his impressive victory in the Champion Bumper!

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I see that Sunderland manager Gus Poyet was sacked yesterday.  It isn't always the manager's fault that his players are underperforming - why doesn't the person who employed Poyet not get sacked?

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Apparently someone has just wasted £1million conducted a survey into why penguins waddle and do not walk.  Have you ever tried walking on ice?  That would have saved them a cool million!

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Finally, there was trouble in Southampton when a five foot statue of a bear was stolen from outside of a house.  I can see this coming to a grizzly end!  Have a nice day...

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