Downpours!

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Catterick and Fontwell as well as all weather flat fixtures from Lingfield and Kempton.  As far as I am aware Lingfield, Fontwell and Kempton are not that far apart...I'm not sure the people in race planning have really thought that one through properly.  In fact, I would have thought that the same bookmakers would have done both tracks.  David Noonan has picked up a couple of outside rides at Fontwell today, whilst Tom Scu must be taking the day off.  It must be a difficult time for jockeys at the moment with the Cheltenham Festival just around the corner - that is the place where they all want to ride and they certainly won't want to be taking any falls now (not that they ever want them!).

The weather looked terrible at Exeter yesterday afternoon and the rain had certainly managed to get into the ground.  It was very testing going with the first race 25 seconds slower than the standard, whilst the last two races were 55 and 42 seconds slower.  They seemed to be walking over the last couple of jumps.

We welcomed another group of people to Pond House for our new organised stable tours.  Matthew, Howard and Antonia met up at the local stores for breakfast before heading to the yard.  They saw some of the horses in action on the gallops and had a guided tour of the yard before enjoying a glass of bubbly with David and Martin afterwards.  I reckon I would like Howard (who was here as part of a birthday present from his wife), he is a fellow West Ham supporter...by the way, here is the obligatory picture of him on board our equicisor yesterday!  David has just released some more dates for tours of the yard in April and May - they are a great experience for the racing enthusiast and more details can be found here...

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Manchester United travel to take on Paris St Germain tonight and it is covered by BT Sport.  United may struggle and PSG are 8/15 to win - they have kept a clean sheet in five of their last six home matches.  Meanwhile, there was a great win for Spurs last night as they beat Borussia Dortmund 1-0 and I did my money, although I did collect on Derby beating Wigan.

According to his mother Judy, Andy Murray will return to top class tennis.  I wonder what sport she played at a top level?  No player has ever returned to elite singles tennis after the operations Andy has had.  However, mum knows best!

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Patient:  Doctor, doctor I only have 59 seconds to live...
Doctor: Just a minute!

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