Exeter, Bangor Runners

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Exeter and Worcester while there are also a couple of flat cards from Chelmsford City and Ayr (who passed an early morning inspection).  I was very pleased to see the Scottish track get the go ahead following the abandonment of their entire Ayr Gold Cup three day fixture recently.  David has runners at both jumps fixtures today - we will start at Exeter where Aero Majestic contests the novices' hurdle over 2m2½f at 2.10pm.  He has some fair placed form to his name and will appreciate this staff track, although he would need to improve again to land this under David Noonan. Mister Drifter contests the second division of the novices' hurdle at 2.45pm and while he has run respectably in bumpers and over hurdles, he will need to improve on what he has done so far to figure.  David Noonan is in the saddle.  Bambi du Noyer contests the conditional jockeys' handicap hurdle at 5.20pm and he will be partnered by Michael Heard who claims 3lbs off his back.  He has plenty of winning form on all types of ground and has place claims if returning to his best.

Over at Worcester Tom Scudamore is aboard Timeforben in the bumper at 2.55pm.  She was the impressive winner of her only start in an Irish point-to-point - a race which has worked out very well.  She clearly has plenty of ability and should go well although this does look like a very competitive little race.  Talking of Tom Scu, he called in the yard with his father Peter (pictured above).  With Paul Leach riding out again ahead of his Legend's race at Chepstow on Saturday and Ed Whitaker taking the pictures for the Racing Post that you will be seeing in the stable tour shortly, it has been a busy morning.

Yesterday provided a good illustration of just how valuable the jockey's claim can be in the hands of a capable rider.  There were three different 7lbs conditionals who were successful at Towcester and I am sure they will continue to utilise their claims in the months ahead.

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I see that disgraced England cricketer Ben Stokes has been dumped by sponsors New Balance, a deal which was worth £200,000 a year...I am sure he will miss that.  If you behave like he has you get what you deserve.  And I always thought that cricket was a gentleman's game.

How did the mafia kingpin Emanuele Niola get caught?  Well, he tried to buy a ticket to watch Napoli, calling the club office which was traced to Secondigliano in Northern Naples.  Police nabbed him as he sat in a car wash in his Fiat Punto.  Maybe he was trying to clean up his act?!  You would have thought that he would have had a more luxurious motor than that.

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An onion just told me a joke...I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

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