Placed At Exeter

There are three meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Kempton, Ludlow and Musselburgh.  Unusually, there is no action on the all-weather.  Kempton, despite hosting a Listed contest have only 35 runners across their entire six race card.  There are two three runner races and a four runner race on the menu despite the ground officially being given as good...again, too much racing anybody?!  Tom Scudamore has picked up an outside ride at the meeting and before you ask, no, I will not be testing the theory today...

Of our runners at Exeter yesterday I thought that Three Star General ran with credit in third place in the staying handicap hurdle - he finished a place behind Norse Legend but that one was thrown out after his jockey weighed in a stone light.  Harry Kimber was banned for two days and trainer Colin Tizzard was fined £500.  It's a shame that neither could offer an explanation as I'm sure there are plenty of people who would pay a fortune to lose a stone in such a short period of time!  Our other runner, Miro ran okay and was promoted to fourth on his first start for the stable and he looks capable of winning a little race somewhere.

There was a bit of a surprise result to the Betfair Chase at Haydock on Saturday.  The much hyped clash between Gold Cup first and second Native River and Might Bite never materialised as they were beaten by an impressive Bristol de Mai.  Might Bite in particular was very disappointing and the stiffness of the fences are being given as reason for his below par performance and the falls of many others at the fixture.

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I hope a few of you followed my football advice over the weekend.  Spurs, Arsenal and Fulham all won and just as predicted, Fulham immediately played better with their new manager in charge.  I don't think that Mark Hughes' tenure at Southampton will last much longer - they were the side who lost to Fulham and he must now be on notice.

I must say, I did find Tyson Fury's comments very funny when he said, "They think they're fighting some fat English idiot, but they don't know what they've let themselves in for".  I hope he remembers to fight as well as he talks when he takes on Deontay Wilder in five days time.

Lewis Hamilton won the final race of the Grand Prix season at Abu Dhabi yesterday ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.  Hamilton seems to have made fewer mistakes than his opponents this season and was a worthy champion.  Mercedes have had the best car for the last five years now, so hopefully the other teams will be able to come up with more competitive cars next season and keep things a little more interesting.

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I threw a biscuit at my neighbour yesterday but he ducked...Jammy dodger!

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