Star Bids To Go One Better

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Cheltenham, Doncaster and Hereford as well as all-weather flat fixtures from Newcastle and Wolverhampton.  The stable has two runners at Cheltenham; Startchitect and Dell' Arca.  Starchitect contests the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup at 1.55pm in which the first five home from November's BetVictor Chase all reoppose today.  Starchitect ran a cracker to finish a narrow runner-up to Splash Of Ginge that day and at the revised weights there should not be much between them again.  He seems to go on any ground and looks to have a great chance under Tom Scudamore.

Old favourite Dell' Arca contests the International Hurdle at 3.05pm.  He has been in good form this term, winning twice at about three miles but he is extremely versatile be it two miles or three, hurdles or fences.  Even so, he needs to improve to land this fascinating contest.  There are only 7 runners, but they include The New One, My Tent Or Yours and Melon - what a race to look forward to!  Melon is the youngster from the Mullins stable and while he needs to improve on ratings, he will do for me...sorry Gino!

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There are some interesting football matches taking place today with the pick being Manchester City versus Tottenham Hotspur.  There should be plenty of goals as neither side is particularly adept at defending.  City at 4/7, Watford at 4/5 to beat Huddersfield and Leicester at 10/11 to beat Crystal Palace will make a nice little treble to put the Christmas turkey on the table in the Barnes household.

I am astounded that orange presenter Matt Chapman has been chosen to commentate on Dancing On Ice.  This is prime time television - I hope ITV know what they are doing as my old mate Matt does have a habit of upsetting one or two people.  As racing people we know what Matt can be like, but I wonder if the general public are ready for all the Yeeehaaa's or are ITV skating on thin ice?

Just when I thought the visitors were going to get competitive in the Ashes with a first innings of over 400, the Aussies have past our total having only lost 4 wickets.  They should get plenty more yet...let's hope not, otherwise England are going to be in big trouble, what's new?  Credit where it is due, there was a great knock from Australian skipper Steve Smith.

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I just sold a lawn mower on Ebay.  That will be the last time my neighbour wakes me up on a Sunday morning!  Have a nice weekend...

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