One Lingfield Runner

There are three meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Lingfield and Sedgefield as well as an all-weather flat card from Southwell.  David has one runner this afternoon as Nordic Combined contests the 2m novices' hurdle at Lingfield at 1.00pm.  Our four year old had useful form on the flat, winning three times on testing ground and he produced a promising first effort over hurdles in a decent race at Newbury last time.  He can only improve for the experience and has each-way prospects under Tom Scudamore, although there are a couple in the line-up with more experience than him over timber who set a tough standard to aim at.  Any further easing in the ground will aid his cause.

I see that the fences at Haydock had already been altered in the run-up to last weekend's controversial Betfair Chase meeting on the advice of course inspector Chris Dennis.  Apparently he felt they were still too high and will be made smaller again before their next meeting.  It seems strange to run a meeting where there are concerns over the state of the fences.  I once remember Peter Scudamore's father Michael telling me that the Grand National fences are now like dandy brushes compared to when he used to ride in the race.

We have had a lot of rain in the west country and even some of the golf courses closed over the weekend which is terrible news for me!  It has been raining solidly overnight as well so I find it surprising that the likes of Leicester will inspect at 10am on Thursday ahead of their proposed meeting on Sunday.  I know the ground is hard (firm in places) but if the forecast rain hits the track it could change.  Hopefully they will get some of the rain we have been having.

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There was a good win for Newcastle last night as they beat Burnley 2-1.  There are only two points between the bottom six clubs - at least it will be exciting at the bottom of the table to see who stays up, unlike at the top where Manchester City are once again calling all the shots (and also having most of the shots!).  Leicester are 19/20 to beat Southampton in their EFL Cup match, while Peterborough are 5/4 to beat AFC Wimbledon...I think I will have a cheeky double.

Meanwhile Jose Mourinho has stated that Manchester United will be in the top four by Christmas.  I think he has lost the plot...what do you think?

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I received a rejection letter from the Origami University yesterday...I'm not quite sure what to make of it!  Keep smiling...

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